By Abdel Rauf Arnaut
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is avoiding journalists as part of his efforts to dodge responsibility for the current Gaza conflict, two Israeli analysts argued.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu said “everyone will have to give answers,” including himself, on the failures that led to the cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, the closest he has come to taking responsibility for not anticipating the surprise attack.
“October 7 was a black day in our history. We will get to the bottom of what happened on the southern border and the Gaza-envelope area,” Netanyahu said in a televised address.
“The debacle will be checked to the full,” he added. “Everyone will have to give answers on the debacle – including me – but all that will happen only after the war.”
Netanyahu has not taken questions from reporters since the start of the Gaza war, nor has he done any interviews with local or foreign media outlets.
Israeli analysts Julie Cohen and Moab Verdi were critical of Netanyahu’s speech.
“We should have heard this speech two weeks ago when the war broke out,” they said in an op-ed published by public broadcaster KAN.
“Netanyahu said that everyone will have to provide answers, but only after the war. He says that the war will also include ground entry, which means that it will take a long time to find the answers,” they added.
The analysts said that the prime minister does not talk about the cost of returning the hostages currently being held by Hamas alive. Many have reportedly already been killed by Israeli airstrikes, and some analysts have said it is not possible to launch a ground war and also keep the hostages alive.
“He does not talk about how long the campaign will continue, nor its repercussions on the home front. We are not talking about a policy that goes beyond the slogan ‘We will destroy Hamas’,” Cohen and Verdi wrote.
Netanyahu had previously failed to take responsibility for the failure to anticipate and prevent the Hamas attack, while other officials declared shared responsibility.
Analysts and voters have both pointed the finger at Netanyahu’s controversial drive to change Israeli law to give him more power than the judiciary, saying that it distracted Netanyahu, divided the country, and eroded military readiness, as many reservists boycotted their duties in protest.
The conflict in Gaza began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – a multi-pronged surprise attack on Oct. 7 that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea, and air.
Hamas said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
The Israeli military then launched a relentless bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
Nearly 8,500 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 7,028 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been running out of food, water, medicine, and fuel, and aid convoys allowed into Gaza have carried only a fraction of what is needed.