A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach.
Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel on December 22.
Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. But little is known about Netanyahu’s behavior immediately following the attack, while the premier has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.
Israel’s security establishment had already been warning for years that Netanyahu’s political decisions were straining national readiness.
Former chiefs of the IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad had accused him of allowing Gaza policy to drift, weakening the Palestinian Authority, and relying on technological surveillance instead of adequate troop presence along the border.
Critics inside Israel said these choices created the conditions for the October 7 collapse and left the prime minister politically exposed.
Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said, “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after October 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability.
“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?'” Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not.”
He added that Netanyahu looked “panicked” when he made the request. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Netanyahu’s close circle to omit the word “responsibility” from all statements.
Netanyahu has long resisted formal inquiries into security failures under his leadership. He opposed broad independent reviews after the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid and the 2021 Mount Meron disaster, and analysts say he has consistently sought to narrow the scope of internal investigations.
His refusal to authorize a full state commission after October 7 fits what critics describe as a yearslong pattern of avoiding scrutiny.
Polling in Israel has shown a sharp collapse in public trust, with large majorities saying that Netanyahu bore responsibility for the October 7 security failure. Netanyahu’s governing coalition, dependent on far-right partners, remains vulnerable to any admission of error that could trigger new elections.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza.
Netanyahu then launched a devastating war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children.
Israel’s conduct in Gaza has drawn sustained scrutiny from the United Nations and international rights organizations, which have accused the government of indiscriminate strikes, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
U.N. human rights experts and genocide scholars have described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide. Several governments, including South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia, along with multiple European ministers and parliamentary bodies, have called for formal investigations into potential war crimes carried out under Netanyahu’s direction.
Feldstein’s statements come after his indictment in a case where he is accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August of last year.
Feldstein is also a suspect in the “Qatargate” scandal, one of two close aides to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while also working for the prime minister.
Netanyahu’s communications strategy has drawn criticism for attempting to shift blame. He publicly suggested security chiefs were responsible for the October 7 failings before retracting the statement under backlash.
His office has also repeatedly clashed with hostage families who have demanded a full accounting.
