'Most Israeli citizens have lost confidence' in the government as leaders accused of shifting blame and blocking an October 7 inquiry

As Israel prepared to mark the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, the country's political leadership faced mounting accusations that it was attempting to shift responsibility for the failures surrounding the assault while actively blocking the creation of an independent commission of inquiry. The criticism, voiced in a France 24 broadcast segment aired on October 8, 2026, argued that "most Israeli citizens" had by now lost confidence in the government — a striking assessment coming on a day normally reserved for national mourning and unity.

The timing of the debate is significant. The attacks of October 7, 2023, in which Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 hostages, remain the deadliest day in the country's history. Three years on, the political reckoning over how the government and the military allowed the massacre to happen has still not formally begun, because no state commission of inquiry has been established.

In Israeli legal tradition, a state commission of inquiry is the most powerful investigative tool available, chaired by a Supreme Court justice and endowed with subpoena powers. Such bodies have historically been used to examine the most sensitive failures of the state, from the wars of 1973 to the Second Intifada. The refusal to convene one over October 7 has therefore been read by critics not as procedural caution, but as a deliberate attempt to shield senior decision-makers from scrutiny.

Analysts participating in the France 24 discussion argued that the government's strategy has been twofold: to attribute blame elsewhere, and to stall. Leaders were described as "shifting" blame — pointing to military intelligence, the Shin Bet security service, and even the hostages' own families — while simultaneously "blocking" any independent commission that could examine the political echelon's decisions in the years and hours before the attack.

This pattern, experts say, has corroded public trust. Polling conducted in Israel over the past three years has repeatedly shown that a majority of citizens believe the government bears significant responsibility for the security collapse, and that a large share no longer believes the current leadership is telling the full truth about what happened. The France 24 segment's headline claim — that most Israelis have lost confidence in their government — reflects that accumulated disillusionment.

The frustration is compounded by the ongoing hostage crisis. Families of those still held in Gaza have repeatedly demanded a full accounting of the failures that led to their abduction, arguing that without an inquiry there can be no guarantee that the same mistakes will not be repeated. For them, the blocked commission is not an abstract institutional question but a matter of life and death.

Israeli leaders, for their part, have offered various justifications for delaying an investigation. Some argue that a formal inquiry would be destabilizing while the country is still at war; others contend that it should wait until the military operations in Gaza conclude. Critics respond that such preconditions could postpone accountability indefinitely, and that democratic states routinely conduct inquiries during wartime.

The political stakes are intensely personal for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced sustained protests demanding early elections and accountability for October 7. Related France 24 coverage has raised the question of whether Netanyahu will ever "pay for what happened during his time in office" — an issue that remains unresolved as the legal and political paths to accountability stay blocked.

Opposition figures and civil society groups have accused the government of exploiting the national trauma to avoid scrutiny, warning that a democracy which refuses to examine its gravest failures sets a dangerous precedent. Historians of Israeli politics note that every previous commission of inquiry, however painful its findings, ultimately strengthened public confidence in the state's capacity for self-correction.

The anniversary itself has been marked by somber ceremonies and, for many families, a profound sense of unresolved grief. Journalists covering the commemorations have spoken of both the "resilience" of Israelis mourning their loved ones and the enduring longing for "the sense that we can be safe" — a sense that was shattered three years ago and, for many, has not returned.

International observers have also taken note. The failure to establish an inquiry comes amid wider regional turbulence, from Houthi attacks on Saudi facilities to shifting alignments across the Middle East, which Israeli leaders have used to argue that the country cannot afford internal paralysis. Yet analysts counter that unresolved trauma and unchecked political blame-shifting are themselves sources of instability.

Ultimately, the debate over the commission is a debate about the kind of democracy Israel intends to be. If the blocked inquiry stands, critics warn, it will confirm for a majority of citizens what polls already suggest: that their government has prioritized self-preservation over truth. And in a country where public trust in institutions was already fragile, that confirmation may prove more damaging than any single commission's findings could have been.