Families, ex-military officials clash with IDF over October 7 investigation transparency

A panel at the Israel Bar Association's annual conference in Eilat convened bereaved families, former military officials, and defense experts to debate the IDF's handling of its October 7 investigations, focusing on transparency, accountability, and public trust.

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Our stomachs are full - the rage, the frustration, the grief, the bereavement that took all of us to other places. Roni entered the Nahal Oz command center, and already then the concealment of information and the cutting of corners began.

The discussion underscored the growing tension surrounding the military's internal probes into the failures of October 7. Families are demanding to know what happened to their loved ones, while the military seeks to preserve candid operational debriefings. The broader public interest lies in understanding how the Hamas attack unfolded.

Eyal Eshel, father of Sgt. Roni Eshel, voiced deep frustration over what he described as missing information and incomplete answers from the defense establishment. "Our stomachs are full - the rage, the frustration, the grief, the bereavement that took all of us to other places," Eshel said. He claimed families were not given a full picture of the danger facing soldiers at the Nahal Oz base, which became a symbol of the failures.

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No one in the defense establishment told any of the families that this entire enclave was an extermination zone - they hid this information from us. We understood that they were lying to these girls, but also to us.

Attorney Talik Gvili, mother of St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran “Rani” Gvili, expressed her disillusionment after seeking answers from the IDF investigations. "I am not only a mother, I am also a citizen who grew up her whole life with the belief that we have the strongest army in the world," she stated. Gvili questioned how such a large sequence of failures could occur simultaneously, citing reports of an open fence and a lack of satellite surveillance.

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I am not only a mother, I am also a citizen who grew up her whole life with the belief that we have the strongest army in the world. But apparently at some point, a loose process developed among army officers or command, instead of giving strength to those who are going in to defend. It became a culture of ‘when do we go home.’

Families like Eshel's feel they were not informed that the Nahal Oz enclave was an "extermination zone," believing this crucial information was hidden from them. Gvili noted that the process among army officers seemed to have become lax, prioritizing going home over providing strength to defenders, a sentiment she found disturbing given her lifelong belief in the IDF's strength.

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There was such a large sequence of failures that happened that day. I hear that the fence was open, that they broke into so many places, and that there were no satellites that saw what was happening.