Speaking at a memorial ceremony on Friday marking the one-year anniversary of his son Gal’s killing in Gaza, MK Gadi Eisenkot criticized the government’s handling of the war in Gaza, saying that soldiers were dying in an ongoing operation that had no clear goals.
Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, was killed on December 7, 2023, when a bomb exploded in a tunnel shaft near soldiers in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Standing over his son’s grave, the National Unity party lawmaker and former IDF chief of staff said that in recent weeks, many other soldiers have been killed in “the same Jabalia, which has already been captured four times,” including his nephew, Cpt. Yogev Pazy, 22, who was killed in November.
Eisenkot emphasized that “this should provoke thought about what went wrong, about what we are putting soldiers at risk for.”
“To be worthy [of the sacrifices of the fallen] is to win and realize the goals of the war. To be worthy is to make the courageous and very difficult decision to return the hostages,” said Eisenkot, who has also lost two nephews killed fighting in Gaza.
Eisenkot—whose other nephew, Sgt. Maor Cohen Eisenkot, 19, was killed in battle a day after his son fell—said that despite the losses, Israel had failed in its main mission, to bring home the remaining hostages.
“A year and two months [after the war began], 100 hostages are still in the Gaza Strip. Their lives are in immediate danger. This fact would have driven Gal crazy,” he said.
בחלוף שנה לנפילת הגיבור גל מאיר אייזנקוט ז״ל התאספה המשפחה הכל כך נדירה ומעוררת ההשראה הזאת, שזכיתי להכיר. עם החברים המעריצים שממאנים להפרד מגל ועם זכרון יוגב פזי ז״ל האחיין האהוב, שבשבוע הבא ימלאו שלושים לנפילתו.
גדי, חנה, חיותא, הילדים ובני הדודים- אתם עמוק בליבי. וכמו שגדי… pic.twitter.com/jXWLOIouly
— Orit Farkash Hacohen אורית פרקש הכהן (@FarkashOrit) December 13, 2024
Eisenkot also called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, emphasizing that “it must not be a committee of convenience, not one for the benefit of political parties, not for the opposition, and not for the coalition. Not a committee that will be ‘comfortable’ and know how to make the decisions we want, but a real committee that will get to the truth.”
The government has so far refused to establish a state commission of inquiry, saying that it would only address the issue after the war, a move that many critics see as a bid to escape culpability.
According to him, “being worthy means renewing the trust of the people.”
“Being worthy means bringing broad segments of Israeli society to enlist in the army or national service,” he added, in a slight at the government’s effort to exempt Haredi men from military service.
Eisenkot served as a minister in the government and as an observer in the war cabinet in the early parts of the war as National Unity joined the government after Oct 7, but later withdrew amid criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
Gal Eisenkot (left) and Gadi Eisenkot (Itay Cohen/Bemahane)
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The thousands of terrorists who burst into the country also abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages.
Israel’s death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 386. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.
It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas during the attack remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
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