Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that “everyone will have to give answers,” including himself, on the failures that led to Hamas’s bloody invasion on October 7, the closest he has come to taking responsibility for not anticipating the devastating attack.
First, though, he said, Israel must win what he described as “a fight for our existence.” He promised that a ground incursion into Gaza was coming soon, to wipe out Hamas and seek to return the hostages.
“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 live primetime 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 said that as prime minister, “I am responsible for securing the future of the country. And right now, my job is to lead the State of Israel and the people to a crushing victory over our enemies. Now is the time to join forces for one goal: to surge forward to victory… with deep faith in the justice of our cause.”
