Almost since the war began, there have been calls for a board of inquiry into the failure of the government and its agencies - foremost among them the IDF - to prevent the Hamas invasion and ensuing war. The IDF, ISA, and Israel Police have all launched internal investigations into the massacre. Some of these, such as the battles of specific towns, have been published; others, such as the failure of the intelligence services to provide early warning of the attack, remain classified. The Cabinet, however, has yet to formally establish a governmental commission of inquiry.
Recently, a group of civilians have been conducting the investigations on their own initiative, led by retired judges Gideon Ginat and Varda Alsheich. The Civilian Board of Inquiry meets three days a week at the Tel Aviv Expo to hear testimonies about the massacre and the events that led to it, with the stated goal of "determining the guilty parties in the greatest disaster ever to befall the nation."
The board has no governmental authority and so cannot issue any legal summons nor order punitive measures for noncompliance. It does not have security clearance, is subject to the military censor, and is not funded. The group has instead been issuing invitations for political and military figures to appear and testify, and solicited donations from the public to continue its operations. Among those invited have been Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and several of their predecessors.
The board is not without its detractors. Several coalition figures have accused it of being a political ploy to give a stage to the opposition, whose members have testified extensively. Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid recently told the board about a security update meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, during which he claimed that the Prime Minister did not give sufficient attention to warnings from the ISA.
Minister Moshe Arbel has written to the Cabinet to have the board shut down and replaced by a government board of inquiry. “The Civilian Board of Inquiry is collecting testimonies that must remain classified. It must be shut down and replaced with a state board of inquiry as soon as possible.”
The Civilian Board of Inquiry’s meetings and records are open to the public, and include testimony from such figures as former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Brigadier General (res.) Ze'ev Tzuk-Ram, former head of the National Emergency Authority; Major General (res.) Israel Ziv, former commander of the Gaza Division, and Lieutenant General Yair Golan , former Deputy Chief of Staff. The Board has committed to ending its operations and turning over a report of its activities as soon as a state board of inquiry is established.