Three Years After October 7, Israelis Press for Accountability as Netanyahu Seeks Another Term

Three years after the deadliest attack in Israel's history, the community of Kfar Aza gathered at dawn on Wednesday for a memorial ceremony beside the kibbutz armoury, the site where Hamas-led gunmen killed half of the community's 14-member civil defence squad shortly after 07:00 on 7 October 2023. In total, 64 residents of the kibbutz were killed that day and 19 were taken hostage, losses that residents say remain painfully immediate even as the country marks another anniversary.

The attack across southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, making it the worst security failure since the country's founding in 1948, and saw 251 people abducted into Gaza as hostages. Three years later, no independent state inquiry has been established to examine how the attack was allowed to happen, and the man who was prime minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, is campaigning for re-election on a promise to be stronger and tougher than any rival in defending Israel.

For families in Kfar Aza, the absence of a formal investigation compounds the grief. Inbar Goldstein, whose brother and niece were killed and four other relatives were kidnapped from the community, said she needs her country to take responsibility. She argued that the roots of the attack were never examined, describing what happened as the culmination of a long process of abandonment rather than an event that began and ended on a single day.

Beyond Hamas's responsibility for the assault itself, questions have multiplied inside Israel about the intelligence failures that preceded it, what information reached military and political leaders in the run-up, and what Netanyahu himself knew. For months before the attack, young female soldiers stationed at bases along the Gaza border to monitor suspicious activity had warned their superiors about possible preparations for an assault.

Among those soldiers was Roni Eshel, who was killed along with 14 other members of her unit when gunmen overran their base at Nahal Oz, adjacent to Kfar Aza. Her uncle, Elad Levy, said many questions remain unanswered, asking whether warnings from Egypt or the United Arab Emirates reached the prime minister and whether other alerts were ignored. He called for a full accounting not only of the day itself but of the year before and the five years before that, warning that without an inquiry the failure will repeat itself.

Over the past three years, reports have accumulated of warnings delivered to Netanyahu by his own security chief and by regional neighbours, allegations he denies. Last month, Israel's Haaretz newspaper published extracts from a new book alleging that the leader of the United Arab Emirates telephoned Netanyahu ten days before the attack to warn of Hamas plans for a major operation. Netanyahu's office dismissed the report as an absolute lie and said he would sue the newspaper.

Amir Ohana, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, said in a social media video last month that it was preposterous and absurd to suggest the prime minister could have known about the attack, noting that the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, had shared details with only a handful of people. Ohana credited Netanyahu with reshaping the Middle East and said he did not give up even when voices inside and outside Israel urged him to stop.

Netanyahu has instead placed blame on his own security chiefs, accusing them of deliberately choosing not to wake him in the hours before the attack out of fear that he would order a massive deployment of the Israel Defense Forces and escalate the situation. In an interview with Israel's right-wing Channel 14 television network, he suggested that had he been woken, the outcome would have been different and that his response would have better protected the country.

The competing narratives have left bereaved families without the authoritative account they have sought for three years. For residents of Kfar Aza, the memorial at the armoury is both a commemoration and a reminder that the institutional reckoning they believe is owed to the victims has yet to arrive. The community's losses represent only a fraction of the broader toll across southern Israel, where gunmen breached the border fence and attacked multiple communities.

The political context sharpens the frustration. With Netanyahu seeking another term and campaigning on his security credentials, critics argue that unresolved questions about the failures of October 2023 sit uneasily alongside that message. Supporters counter that he has since transformed Israel's regional position and that assigning personal blame for the attack misreads how decisions were made in the hours before it.

Central to the demands is an independent state inquiry, something families argue is necessary not only for justice but for preventing a recurrence. Levy's warning that silence invites repetition reflects a widely shared view among survivors that institutional memory cannot be built without a rigorous examination of the warnings that were or were not passed up the chain of command.

As the anniversary ceremonies conclude, the debate over responsibility shows no sign of resolution. The families of Kfar Aza say they will continue to press for answers, insisting that accountability is not a partisan matter but a condition for the country's future security.