Netanyahu made the allegation during a live Instagram interview on Tuesday, saying the attack could have been better contained had he been alerted earlier.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused security officials of deliberately not waking him on the morning of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, claiming they knew he would have ordered an immediate military response.
Netanyahu made the allegation during a live Instagram interview on Tuesday, saying the attack could have been better contained had he been alerted earlier.
“Why didn’t they wake me?” Netanyahu asked, claiming officials knew that he would have ordered the army to go on full alert and warned communities along the Gaza border.
“It’s so obvious that all of this could have been done. This has been hidden from the public,” he said.
Netanyahu has previously said he was not woken during the early hours of the attack, but has only recently begun alleging that the decision was intentional.
Netanyahu Blames Security Officials
The prime minister repeated similar claims in a podcast interview published on Monday, pointing the finger at senior military officials and Ronen Bar, who was head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service at the time.
Netanyahu said officials were reluctant to wake him because they feared triggering a military escalation with Hamas based on what he described as a possible “miscalculation”.
“They didn’t believe Hamas would attack,” he said. “They knew exactly what I would do.”
The claims come as Netanyahu faces continued scrutiny over the security failures surrounding the October 7 attack and ahead of closely contested elections later this year.
Sara Netanyahu Faces Backlash
Netanyahu’s remarks came a day after his wife, Sara Netanyahu, accused opposition politician Yair Golan of knowing about the Hamas attack before it happened.
Golan, a former deputy military chief of staff, has rejected the allegation and threatened legal action. He said he rushed to southern Israel after learning of the attack and helped rescue at least six people from the Nova music festival site.
Golan said Sara Netanyahu was spreading a false conspiracy to rewrite the events of October 7. His party also condemned her comments.
Opposition Calls Claims ‘Mad Conspiracy’
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is seen as a leading potential challenger to Netanyahu, criticised what he called a “mad conspiracy of betrayal”.
The accusations come amid a wider debate in Israel over responsibility for the October 7 security failure. A Channel 13 poll in August found that 40% of Israelis believed internal treason contributed to the attack, rising to 63% among supporters of the current right-wing coalition.
