Netanyahu coalition pushes contentious Oct. 7 attack probe, families call for justice

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Israel's parliament gave the initial go-ahead on Wednesday for a government-empowered inquiry into the surprise October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel rather than the expected independent investigation demanded by families of the victims.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls to establish a state commission to investigate Israel's failures in the run-up to its deadliest day and has taken no responsibility for the attack that sparked the two-year Gaza war.

His ruling coalition voted on Wednesday to advance a bill which grants parliament members the authority to pick panel members for an inquiry and gives Netanyahu's cabinet the power to set its mandate.

Critics say the move circumvents Israel's 1968 Commissions of Inquiry Law, under which the president of the Supreme Court appoints an independent panel to investigate major state failures such as those which preceded the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

Survivors and relatives of those hurt in the Hamas attack have launched a campaign against the proposed probe, saying only a state commission can bring those accountable to justice.

"This is a day of disaster for us all," said Eyal Eshel, who lost his daughter when Hamas militants overran the army base where she served. "Justice must be done and justice will be done," he said at the Knesset, before the vote.

Surveys have shown wide public support for the establishment of a state commission into the country's biggest security lapse in decades.

Netanyahu said on Monday that a panel appointed in line with the new bill, by elected officials from both the opposition and the coalition, would be independent and win broad public trust.

But Israel's opposition has already said it will not cooperate with what it describes as an attempt by Netanyahu's coalition to cover up the truth rather than reveal it, arguing that the investigation would ultimately be controlled by Netanyahu and his coalition.

The new bill says that if the politicians fail to agree on the panel, its make-up will be decided by the head of parliament, who is allied with Netanyahu and is a member of his Likud party.

Jon Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage and found slain by his captors with five other hostages in a Hamas tunnel in August 2024, said only a trusted commission could restore security and unite a nation still traumatized.

"I support a state commission, not to see anyone punished and not because it will bring back my only son, no. I support a state commission so that nothing like what happened to my son, can ever happen to your son, or your daughter, or your parents," Polin said on Sunday at a news conference with other families.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among dozens of hostages taken in the 2023 attack from the site of the Nova music festival.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Dedi Hayun; editing by Philippa Fletcher)