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“Why Didn’t They Wake Me?” Netanyahu Accuses Guards of Failing to Alert Him to the October 2023 Attacks

From Clarín · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused senior military and security officials of deliberately failing to wake him during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, a claim opponents called a conspiracy theory.
  • Netanyahu said the attack killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being taken to Gaza; his office later released a timeline saying he first received notice at 6:29 a.m.
  • The dispute intensified after Sara Netanyahu appeared to suggest that opposition leader Yair Golan had prior knowledge of the attack, prompting a threatened defamation suit.

“Why didn’t they wake me?” Benjamin Netanyahu asked, reviving one of Israel’s most explosive political disputes over the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023. The prime minister accused senior military and Shin Bet officials of deliberately deciding not to alert him in the early hours of the assault.

Netanyahu made the accusation in a video broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 and repeated it on a podcast. He argued that the security chiefs feared he would immediately order the army to mobilize and fire at anyone approaching the border fence. In his account, they preferred to avoid an escalation with Hamas because they feared a “miscalculation.”

Why didn’t they wake me?

· Benjamin NetanyahuHe questioned why senior military and Shin Bet officials did not alert him during the early hours of the Oct. 7 attack.

The attack killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being taken to Gaza. The controversy intensified after Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, suggested in an interview with Channel 14 that Yair Golan, then the army’s deputy chief and now leader of the center-left Democrats party, had arrived in southern Israel very early, dressed and ready, after the assault. Her comments were interpreted as suggesting that he had known about Hamas’s plans in advance.

false conspiracy

· Yair GolanHe used the phrase to denounce Sara Netanyahu’s suggestion that he knew about the attack in advance.

Golan accused Sara Netanyahu on X of spreading a “false conspiracy.” He also sent a pre-lawsuit warning demanding a public apology within 24 hours and compensation for survivors of the Nova festival. He threatened to seek 2.5 million shekels, about 714,473 euros, in damages.

Opposition figures accused Netanyahu and his family of promoting a false and dangerous conspiracy against the army and Shin Bet leadership. Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister and candidate for the Beyajad coalition in the Oct. 27 legislative elections, called it a “sick, false and dangerous” conspiracy. Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief and Netanyahu’s main rival in the elections, criticized what he called an “absurd conspiracy of treason.”

sick, false and dangerous

· Naftali BennettHe described the alleged conspiracy promoted by Netanyahu and his family against security officials.

Under pressure, Netanyahu’s office published a detailed account of his movements on the morning of the attack. It said his military secretary first informed him at 6:29 a.m. that an attack from Gaza was underway. Netanyahu left for the Kirya headquarters at 7:30 a.m. The supplied account ends as it begins to describe his arrival.

absurd conspiracy of treason

· Gadi EisenkotHe criticized the accusations attributed to Sara Netanyahu.
About this summary

Originally published by Clarín in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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