The State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman has issued a scathing critique of the Chief of Staff and the ISA director in the wake of their refusal to allow his office to conduct a review of the October 7th massacre.
"From the outset, I have announced that we will conduct a review of all parties involved, at the political, military, and civilian levels," Englman said at the convention of the Association of Municipal Treasurers and noted that some 200 of his staff were currently in the midst of a review of the associated failures: "There is no other objective and unbiased body other than ourselves that is checking what happened".
"For many months now our office has been conducting audits in the Prime Minister's Office, the National Security Council, and the Military Secretariat. As part of the audit, the teams have been reviewing the minutes, checking what was discussed in the cabinet meetings, who raised concerns that were not heeded, and who did not bring up any concerns at all. The Defense Ministers have also cooperated from the outset. Nevertheless, without the full cooperation of the IDF and ISA, a full audit cannot be carried out. For the past year and a half, the Chief of Staff and the ISA director have been preventing an audit of the core of the failure."
He further said: "I expect the Attorney General to act to implement the full implementation of the Basic Law of the State Comptroller and to instruct all the parties to cooperate in accordance with the law."
Englman emphasized that "Israeli citizens deserve to receive answers from an independent and unbiased investigation and not just from internal inquiries that are leaked to the media from one side or the other. An investigation cannot be limited to a body investigating itself, especially when the head of the body is not investigated by an external party."
Englman said that he had met with Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi a year ago and told him that the failures of the massacre were due to a lack of attention to criticism and different opinions, as well as a lack of attention to the warnings from surveillance posts. He claimed that the IDF is working to prevent the investigation rather than correcting the flaws.
In addition, he also addressed the claims that the State Comptroller's Office allegedly lacks the tools to examine the functioning of the IDF and said: "We have an entire division that has been able to audit security forces for decades, including the most classified matters, and headed by a retired Brigadier General Eitan Dahan who was also the former Defense Ministry Inspector General."
He also addressed the issue of accountability, saying: "There must be a culture of accountability in Israel even for acts that do not cross the criminal threshold."
Englman concluded with the need to provide the citizens of Israel with answers by an objective external factor that will examine what happened, especially as the hostages finally begin to return home. "As a state commission of inquiry is established, we will know to set its boundaries," he emphasized.