The Israeli government's response to the October 7 attacks has multiple aspects, including a military response leading to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. In October, the Knesset approved a war cabinet in Israel, adding National Unity ministers and altering the government; Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz froze non-war legislation, establishing a war cabinet with military authority.
The IDF's subsequent large-scale bombing and invasion of Gaza led to a humanitarian crisis, mass detentions, and famine. Israel's response was criticized as resulting in war crimes, and it was charged with genocide by South Africa in the International Court of Justice. Settler expansions and officials' controversial remarks heightened unrest, leading to protests in Israel. The Knesset's law criminalizing "terrorist materials" consumption drew criticism. The Israeli government's response prompted international protests, arrests, and harassment.
Background
The Israeli government faced criticism after it was revealed intelligence agencies had been aware of an attack plan for over a year. Yair Lapid, a centrist Israeli politician, called the failure of the government and intelligence agencies to prevent the attack an "unpardonable failure". Netanyahu blamed Israel's intelligence chiefs.
Egypt said it warned Israel days before the attack, "an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big". Israel denied receiving such a warning, but the Egyptian statement was corroborated by Michael McCaul, Chairman of the US House Foreign Relations Committee, who said warnings were made three days before the attack.
Israeli intelligence officials initially stated that they had no warnings or indications of the 7 October attack by Hamas, despite Israel exercising extensive monitoring over Gaza. Furthermore, the United States warned the Israeli government of the possibility of a surprise attack from Hamas a few days before the incident. In July 2023, a member of the Israeli signals intelligence unit alerted her superiors that Hamas was conducting preparations for the assault, saying that "I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary". An Israeli colonel ignored her concerns. According to the Financial Times, alerts from the signals unit were ignored because they came from lower-ranking soldiers, contradicted the belief that Hamas was contained by Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, bombing, and placation via aid, and the belief that Hamas was seeking to avoid a full war.
7 October
The Israeli military faced criticism for its handling of the initial 7 October attack. According to Haaretz's journalist Josh Breiner, a police source said that a police investigation indicated an IDF helicopter which had fired on Hamas militants "apparently also hit some festival participants" in Re'im music festival. The Israeli police denied the Haaretz report and said they found no evidence of civilian harm resulting from the aerial activities at that location.
A New York Times analysis described the Israeli military response on 7 October as "poorly organized", with soldiers operating without a response plan or training and "making it up as they went along". On 31 December, Eli Cohen told Maariv that the Israeli government bore responsibility for the 7 October attack and an investigation committee was needed to hold those negligent accountable. The Haaretz editorial board further called for an investigation into reported Israeli tank fire at Be'eri on 7 October. Ynet reported soldiers were told to stop militants from returning to Gaza "at all costs", despite fears that many were holding Israeli hostages as they fled.
In response to reports that Israeli soldiers had been instructed to follow the Hannibal Directive, an IDF policy to kill Israeli soldiers before allowing them to be taken hostage, Asa Kasher, the author of the IDF Code of Conduct, called for an investigation, stating "There is absolutely nothing to allow someone to kill an Israeli citizen, in uniform or not". On 6 February 2024, the Israeli military stated it would be opening an investigation into whether Israeli civilians were killed by the Israeli military on 7 October.
A July 2024 Haaretz investigation revealed that the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used, adding: "Haaretz does not know whether or how many civilians and soldiers were hit due to these procedures, but the cumulative data indicates that many of the kidnapped people were at risk, exposed to Israeli gunfire, even if they were not the target." One of these decisions was made at 7:18 A.M., when an observation post reported someone had been kidnapped at the Erez crossing, close to the IDF's liaison office. "Hannibal at Erez" came the command from divisional headquarters, "dispatch a Zik." The Zik is an unmanned assault drone, and the meaning of this command was clear, Haaretz reported.
A source in the Southern Command of the IDF told Haaretz: "Everyone knew by then that such vehicles could be carrying kidnapped civilians or soldiers...There was no case in which a vehicle carrying kidnapped people was knowingly attacked, but you couldn't really know if there were any such people in a vehicle. I can't say there was a clear instruction, but everyone knew what it meant to not let any vehicles return to Gaza." The same source stated that on 2:00 P.M. a new instruction was given that "was meant to turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone, closing it off toward the west."
Haaretz further reported that at 6:40 P.M. military intelligence believed militants were intending to flee back to Gaza in an organized manner from near Kibbutz Be'eri, Kfar Azza and Kissufim. In response the army launched artillery at the border fence area, very close to some of these communities. Shells were also fired at the Erez border crossing shortly thereafter. The IDF says it is not aware of any civilians being hurt in these bombardments.
Haaretz notes one case in which it is known that civilians were hit, which took place in the house of Pessi Cohen at Kibbutz Be'eri. 14 hostages were in the house as the IDF attacked it, with 13 of them killed.
A September 2024 report by ABC News (Australia) also covered the use of the Hannibal Directive in the initial Israeli response. The report quotes former Israeli officer, Air Force Colonel Nof Erez as saying: "This was a mass Hannibal. It was tons and tons of openings in the fence, and thousands of people in every type of vehicle, some with hostages and some without." ABC News adds that it was not only soldiers but also Israeli civilians who were targeted, citing testimonies from two incidents at Kibbutz Be'eri and Nir Oz.
Six months later the Israeli military released a review exonerating itself, but ABC News notes that it left many at Kibbutz Be'eri unsatisfied and contradicts the testimony from one of the survivors, Yasmin Porat, "who told Israel's Kan radio on October 15 that Hamas gunmen had not threatened the hostages and instead intended to negotiate with police for their safe return to Gaza. She said an Israeli police special unit had started the gun battle by firing upon the house, catching "five or six" kibbutz residents outside in "very, very heavy crossfire". In the interview, she was asked: "So our forces may have shot them?" "Undoubtedly," she replied."
Timeline
- 06:30: Air raid sirens were activated in southern and central Israel in response to Hamas missiles.
- 07:40: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Hamas militants had entered southern Israel and asked residents of Sderot and other cities to remain indoors.
- 08:15: Sirens were activated in Jerusalem following a rocket barrage that landed on the city's western edge.
- 08:23: Israel declared a state of alert for war, activating its reservists, in response to continued rocket attacks.
- 08:34: Israel announced that it had begun counteroffensive operations against Hamas.
- 10:47: The Israeli Air Force (IAF) began attacking Gaza.
- 11:35: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his first statement, declaring that Israel was at war.
- 12:21: The IDF began operations to relieve cities in southern Israel as the number of rockets launched from Gaza increased to over 1,200.
- 18:00: The Israeli security cabinet said on 8 October that a state of war had officially begun at this time.
War cabinet
The formation of the war cabinet was approved by the Knesset on 12 October. The composition of the preexisting government was modified: MKs voted, 66–4, to approve the addition of five National Unity ministers (Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper, and Yifat Shasha-Biton) to the government as ministers without portfolio, and unanimously voted to remove the health portfolio from Interior Minister Moshe Arbel and elevate Uriel Buso of the Shas party to the post of health minister.
As part of the deal, Netanyahu and Gantz also agreed to freeze all new non-war, non-emergency legislation, including the highly controversial judicial overhaul legislation, and agreed that the war cabinet would meet at least once every 48 hours. The war cabinet has the authority to "update, as necessary, military and strategic aims for the conflict" but its decisions are subject to approval from the Security Cabinet of Israel.
On 16 October, Netanyahu's Likud party announced that Yisrael Beytenu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, had agreed to join the emergency government. However, later the same day, Lieberman denied reaching an agreement with the government, saying that the offer to join the Security Cabinet was insufficient. Lieberman said that he wanted a seat on the smaller war cabinet instead. He said his party would "continue to support the government's actions that are meant to eliminate Hamas and Hamas leaders" but that he had "no intention of being the 38th minister in the government and be used as a fig leaf."
In January 2024, the war cabinet's budget accounted for increases in military spending by cutting funding initially allocated for the development of Palestinian communities.
Military response
On the evening of 27 October 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a large-scale invasion inside the Gaza Strip, as part of the Gaza war, with the stated goal of destroying Hamas and overthrowing the organization's governance of the Gaza Strip. At the start of the war, Israel implemented a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in significant shortages of fuel, food, medication, water, and essential medical supplies. This siege resulted in a 90% drop in electricity availability, impacting hospital power supplies, sewage plants, and shutting down the desalination plants that provide drinking water. Widespread disease outbreaks have spread across Gaza. Heavy bombardment by Israeli airstrikes caused catastrophic damage to Gaza's infrastructure, further deepening the humanitarian crisis.
War crimes
Numerous charges of war crimes have been levied against the Israeli government for its military actions against civilians. These charges have come from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'tselem, and human rights groups and experts, including UN rapporteurs.
Genocide
Israel was accused of committing a genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. South Africa brought the government of Israel to the International Court of Justice, alleging it was committing acts of genocide in its campaign in Gaza. In response, the government of Israel instructed its embassies to lobby diplomats and politicians around the world to issue statements against South Africa's case.
West Bank
Following the 7 October attack, Israel intensified its military actions in the West Bank. These included raids in Jenin and attacks on hospitals, paramedics, and medical personnel. In a statement, a Doctors Without Borders representative stated, "Since October, we have witnessed the shooting and killing of a 14-year-old boy in the hospital compound, soldiers firing live rounds and tear gas at the hospital several times, paramedics forced to strip and kneel in the street".
Expulsion
In the immediate aftermath of the 7 October attack, a document from the Intelligence Ministry, an Israeli government research agency, proposed the forcible expulsion of the population of Gaza into the Sinai desert in neighboring Egypt. Agencies and experts, including the Government of Egypt and the UN special rapporteur on internally displaced persons, have stated they believe Israel's intent is to expel Gazans into Egypt. On 23 December, MK Danny Danon wrote on a social media post he had initiated a plan for the voluntary migration of Palestinians out of Gaza. In a 25 December meeting with Likud party members, PM Netanyahu reportedly said he was ready to support the "voluntary migration" of civilians from Gaza.