“This framework builds upon the agreements reached in November 2024, based on which dozens of reviews have been conducted within the IDF in recent months, covering 70 percent of the topics,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said in a joint statement.

Englman’s probe will take operational needs and the dynamic security situation while Zamir promised that all of the army’s related investigations and documents will be transferred to the comptroller’s office by the end of April.

The State Comptroller, also known as the state ombudsman, periodically releases reports auditing Israeli preparedness and the effectiveness of government policies.

In early March, Englman panned the army’s internal probes, telling Knesset lawmakers the findings “do not present the full picture.”

According to a series of army probes — summaries of which have been released in recent weeks — some 5,000 terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad managed to attack numerous Israeli communities and overrun the army’s border positions. The army’s chain of command broke amid the chaos and soldiers were outnumbered.

They also found that the army misunderstood Hamas’s intentions for years, and as October 7 approached, intelligence about the looming attack was misinterpreted. The military was also more focused on threats from Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The IDF probes only deal with issues of operations, intelligence and command, not decisions made by the political echelon.

The development comes amid increasing calls for a broader state commission of inquiry.

During a Knesset discussion on Wednesday, National Unity party leader Benny Gantz told Netanyahu, “You know the truth, you also know why you are so afraid of a state commission of inquiry [into the Oct. 7 attack] that will expose not only your failures and those of your government’s before the massacre, but also your and your government’s underperformance when the war began.”nbsp;

Such commissions have broader authority to summon witnesses and collect evidence and are headed by a senior Supreme Court justice. They may include personal recommendations about individuals under investigation, though the government is not bound to act on them.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls for an inquiry, saying he opposes a “politically biased” probe. Critics accuse Netanyahu of delaying the inquiry and trying to water down its mandate.

The last state commission of inquiry, which investigated Israel’s worst civilian disaster — a stampede that killed 45 people at a holy site on Mount Meron — held Netanyahu personally responsible for the tragedy in a report released in April.

At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.

Image - GPO