Families accuse Netanyahu of deliberately aiding Oct. 7 Hamas massacre

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of deliberately aiding the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre through years of preserving the group’s rule in Gaza, allowing it to grow stronger. He is also said to have deliberately ignored warning signs of an attack.

Families of Israelis killed or abducted in the attack unveiled a 12-page dossier on Tuesday arguing that it was not simply an intelligence failure, but the result of a long-running policy under successive Netanyahu governments.

The report cites repeated Israeli government decisions to reject strikes on Hamas leaders, facilitate Qatari funding for Gaza, and consistently dismiss warnings about the group’s growing capabilities, treating it instead as a “calculated risk” and useful counterweight to the Palestinian Authority.

“They attacked because they could. Israel’s governments, which held the reins of power for nearly two decades, allowed it,” the dossier claims.

“It could’ve been prevented, but the prime minister chose not to act,” Merav Svirsky, a relative of October 7 victims, said at the press conference, explaining that the catastrophe “was not merely a failure at a single moment. It was a choice to repeatedly ignore the warnings.”

Svirsky pointed to recent reports that Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed had personally warned Netanyahu roughly ten days before October 7 that Hamas was preparing a major attack. According to Haaretz, Netanyahu downplayed the warning and did not pass it to his security chiefs.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem has also accused Netanyahu’s government of carrying out a broader “project of elimination” in the occupied West Bank. Its new report, also published on Tuesday, says the Israeli authorities and settlers are systematically dismantling Palestinian life through violence, movement restrictions, economic pressure, displacement, and territorial takeover.

B’Tselem and Amnesty International have separately accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, citing mass killing, displacement, and the destruction of conditions necessary for civilian life.

The accusations add to growing condemnation of the Israeli government for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, which has led to allegations that Netanyahu deliberately allowed the October 7 assault to unfold in order to provide a pretext for a wider campaign.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. Israel’s subsequent response has killed more than 73,700 Palestinians in Gaza and left much of the enclave in ruins.