Former hostages and hundreds of relatives of victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of Israel joined a group Sunday demanding the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the disaster.
Among those joining the so-called October Council was freed hostage Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two young sons were murdered in captivity; freed hostages Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, Sharon Aloni Cunio, Keren Munder, Yagil Yaakov, Noga Weiss and Shiri Weiss; the wife of murdered hostage Tsahi Idan; the daughter of murdered hostage Shlomo Mantzur; the mother of freed hostage Daniella Gilboa; the mother of freed hostage Karina Ariev; the father of freed hostage Arbel Yehud; and the father of freed hostage Omer Wenkert.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, the body that enjoys the broadest powers under Israeli law, to investigate the government’s failures that enabled the deadly Hamas attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, claiming that all investigations must wait until the fighting in Gaza ends.
“We, the families of the hostages, demand that the Israeli government immediately establish a state commission of inquiry to thoroughly and comprehensively investigate [the events] with full transparency, including the management of the negotiations for the return of our loved ones,” the families said in a statement.
“Only a state commission of inquiry can provide us with answers, offer some solace to our souls, and prevent the next disaster. The failure to establish such a commission and draw lessons would mean harming the security of the state,” they said.
The council said it now unites 1,500 families of those killed or captured on October 7.
“Last week gave another feeling of the hostages’ failure — heartbreaking funerals. How many of them would it have been possible to save if the state had fulfilled its commitments?” it asked.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a graduation ceremony for cadets in the IDF Ground Forces officers’ course, and holds up a photo of slain hostages Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas, February 23, 2025. (Haim Tzach/GPO)
Last Wednesday, Yarden Bibas held a funeral for his wife Shiri, and sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, who, at just nine months old when they were taken hostage, was the youngest person abducted by the terrorists.
On Sunday, a funeral was held for Shlomo Mantzur, 85, the oldest of the hostages.
The development came after the Israel Defense Forces, at the end of last week, published the results of its own internal inquiry of October 7, concluding a series of failures, including ignored warning signs, inadequate border security preparations, and a failed response to the attack.
The release of the reports has upped pressure on the government to conduct a similar probe of itself.
Speaking at Mantzur’s funeral on Sunday, President Isaac Herzog called for a state commission of inquiry to be established as soon as possible.
“There is no other way [for the country] to repair and heal other than to investigate and find out in depth everything that caused the terrible massacre,” Herzog said.
President Isaac Herzog speaks at the funeral of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz in Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 25, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)
On Monday, the Knesset is to hold a special session to discuss forming a state commission of inquiry into October 7. The prime minister is to attend.
With Netanyahu steadfastly refusing to establish a state commission of inquiry — claiming that the public would dismiss such a commission’s findings as politicized, despite polls showing majority support for one — a lawmaker from his Likud party last week presented the outline for an alternative probe.
In January, the ruling coalition voted down an opposition bill to form a commission or inquiry.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire that began in January.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014 is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 59 hostages.
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