This is a report from Haaretz 17 July 2024 about a meeting Netanyahu had just had with the families of the young IDF spotter girls who had been observers at the army base at Nahal Oz, had been reporting on Hamas readying for attack, but who were ignored, and also left without weapons or protection.
Netanyahu said to the families that he was surprised to hear they were unarmed, as if he never knew. Can you imagine?
'That Amazes Me, I Didn't Know': Netanyahu 'Surprised' to Hear What Happened at Israeli Army Base on October 7
(Without links)
Recordings aired on Channel 12 News on Tuesday evening show how little Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows about what happened at the Nahal Oz base during the October 7 Hamas assault and about the failures that enabled it to happen.
Netanyahu met on Tuesday with relatives of the female IDF spotters who were killed at the base, and the recordings document portions of the three-hour meeting, during which the families called on the prime minister to hasten the establishment of a national commission of inquiry.
The meeting began with some harsh exchanges.
Netanyahu: "Good morning."
A participant: "For us, it's not a good morning."
Netanyahu: "We are from the same family."
Participant: "Too bad it doesn't feel like that."
Netanyahu: "I feel like that."
Participant: "I don't."
At the meeting, the parents told Netanyahu about how their daughters had warned repeatedly of a Hamas invasion. The mother of one of the soldiers said that her daughter, who had just finished her training and had only served at the Nahal Oz base for a week, predicted what was about to happen.
"She came home to us and said: There's going to be an invasion," the mother said. "When did she tell you that?" Netanyahu asked, and the mother replied: "During the time she was there. She said it several times, in fact."
Another woman at the meeting said, "For a month, they were telling us every day: 'It's trouble, they [Hamas] keep training.'" The prime minister asked her: "They told you that?" And another participant answered: "They told us, and we demand answers about this, immediately, not when the war ends."
Bachar
"All of this information, I'm stunned by what I'm hearing. I didn't know they told you these things," the prime minister said. "All of this material was supposed to have reached someplace that operates the systems, and it didn't happen." Netanyahu claimed to have discovered this information in a conversation with his son Avner
"The amazing things that I discovered, it was because my son was in combat intelligence – He says to me: 'Dad, this golden material, this pure gold from the spotters … I don't know if it's accurate, but you have to check it out. It's not going into a database.'" To which one of the participants reacted: "Then what are the girls doing there? What did you do when he told you that?" And Netanyahu replied: "We're dealing with it now, it didn't happen beforehand."
One person at the meeting said, "Our lives have been turned upside down. The only thing we ask is first of all for the truth to come to light. I want to see a national commission of inquiry. We all do."
Another person asked: "Can you give us your word that a national inquiry commission will be established, and not 20 years from now?"
Another woman at the meeting added: "It won't hinder the war. We are Likudniks who voted for you – Bibists. Two Bibists are sitting here in front of you."
Then someone at the meeting reminded the prime minister of his responsibility for the massacre. "You're the head. You are responsible. You command the army. You command the defense minister. The responsibility is on you. Accept responsibility."
Netanyahu answered: "At this time, I say to you: All the possible examinations need to be done, but to get into a situation now in which all these commanders and officers will take lawyers? We're in a war of survival."
The sister of one of the spotters who was killed said: "Everybody here talked about punishment. Do you know what punishment the girls received if they ever took their eyes off the screen? They got 28 days in military prison. What is the punishment for looking away that cost the lives of 1,400 slaughtered, and caused us all here to lose the most precious thing to us in the world? I want to know what punishment they will receive. Because if my sister turned her eyes away for a moment, she would have gone to jail. What punishment will all those who looked away for so many years receive?"
Netanyahu told the soldiers' families that he only found out right now that they were posted on the Gaza border without being armed: "I just asked Roman [Roman Gofman – the prime minister's military secretary]: 'Were there weapons? No weapons?,' now, just an hour and a half ago, and he said, 'No.' I said: 'How can that be?'" One of the participants responded: "You mean to tell me that you didn't know they weren't armed? That's a big problem in itself."
The families went on to tell Netanyahu about how hurt they are because the government has ignored them. "I've been sitting at home for nine months," said one person there. "No one has come to us – no one for the government, or from the Knesset. Nobody has come to ask forgiveness, to say, 'We're thinking of you, we're aware of your existence.'"
Another person added: "Not one person can come see us at home? For nine months, not one person can come and knock on the door and say: 'We erred, we're sorry'? Where's the respect? My daughter isn't on a par with Eizenkot's child? Can someone explain this?"
A further article that was originally linked is this one:
The Women Soldiers Who Warned of a Pending Hamas Attack – and Were Ignored
archive.ph/2025.01.19-230234/www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-women-soldiers-who-warned-of-a-pending-hamas-attack-and-were-ignored/0000018b-ed76-d4f0-affb-eff740150000