State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman addressed the findings of the audit and investigations into the failures of October 7 this morning (Wednesday) at the MUNI EXPO 2026 local government conference.
In his remarks, Engelman revealed that during the audit work, pressure was exerted on him to remove the responsibility section from the investigations, but he rejected the requests made to him.
In a conversation with journalist Yanir Kozin, the Comptroller said: "We have already published nearly 50 reports. Another set of reports is due to be published in the coming week, including on the issue of evacuating the wounded. It should be remembered that on October 7th we experienced thousands of wounded from the terrorist attack, and unfortunately many of them bled to death without being evacuated. I will not go into the findings of the report on the Nova Festival right now, but the report is resonant, serious and extremely important for drawing lessons.".
""Alongside this, we have eight reports that, in accordance with the High Court of Justice's decision, are frozen for the time being. Four of them are drafts that were sent in July of the previous year, and four deal with the core issues of the failure. I just want to say that among the reports that are currently frozen is the report on the licensing and security of the Bad Party - a party where nearly 400 people were murdered, and others were raped and kidnapped. I think the public is entitled to receive answers.".
""And I ask here: Who is afraid of the truth? And who is afraid of accepting responsibility? When you see the petitioners and the respondents in this High Court - who are the Military Defense, the Movement for Quality Government and former Chiefs of Staff - I ask, why are you afraid of criticism? I think the truth should come to light and the citizens of Israel are entitled to receive answers, and this does not contradict one investigative committee or another.
""The answers are with us. Nearly 100 man-years were invested in these reports, just on these issues: issues of the intelligence failure, the failure at the fence, issues of evacuation of casualties and protection of the cities of the south. These are matters of life and death.".
""It is very important to complete the audit, it is important that the deficiencies be corrected, and it is also important in the circumstances of October 7 that the issue of responsibility does not disappear from the Israeli public.
""In our reports, we examine all levels: political, military, and civilian, and also assign responsibility. Will there be personal responsibility? The answer is the same as what I said when we set out with the war reviews: In these reviews, we will assign personal responsibility to those responsible for significant failures.".
""And I'll give you a scoop here - some of the petitioners sat with me and told me: 'Come on, omit the responsibility chapter, and publish the reports.' I said: 'No.' I am committed to the citizens of Israel, and it is unacceptable that in Israeli public life the word 'responsibility' disappear from the discourse.".
Yanir Kuzin: Wait, wait, you're a little surprised here. Are you saying that some of the people who objected to the publication of the reports on October 7, on the core issues, are people who are directly related to the review and asked you to take down the relevant chapters? Can you tell us if we're talking about a professional level? A military level?
State Comptroller: ""The military echelon is the petitioner, this is the military defense. And I ask you: Have we seen the military investigations? The IDF itself appointed a committee, and said that a large part of the investigations were not at the required level, to put it mildly. Where did these investigations stop? In the commander who did not storm Zikim or in another kibbutz? In the fact that this or that alert squad did not function properly? There was also an investigation into the command echelon, but where was the investigation into the General Staff?
""I defined that when we discuss responsibility, it will refer to the political echelon - the prime minister and ministers, and at the military echelon - the rank of brigadier general and above. Because I think the word 'responsibility' is not a dirty word, and we must, in a public context, present the chapter on responsibility. It should be done, by the way, with a lot of respect. When we criticize a former chief of staff, a former head of the Shin Bet, or a prime minister - we do it with a lot of respect. They are people who gave their lives for the security of Israel, and still - the criticism should be heard.
""And I'll tell you one more thing: I think part of our big problem on October 7th was that they didn't listen to others. They didn't listen to the observers who told the head of Military Intelligence: 'You don't understand, you don't read the picture. Look, if you have thousands of Hamas terrorists training, they're not training for the Independence Day parade. They're training to infiltrate.'".
""Therefore, criticism must be heard. We are almost three months behind; shouldn't the public receive answers?""
