Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former military secretary, Avi Gil, told N12 News on Thursday that Netanyahu gave an inaccurate account of his October 7 timeline and added that his chief of staff allegedly tried to change the official record of the prime minister's schedule.
"The document shared with the public [of Netanyahu’s schedule] does not reflect what I saw and experienced and heard that day," Gil said. "It only shows part. What I saw does not correctly reflect what I witnessed take place on Oct. 7."
"I think we are ruining Israel because of the lies," he said. "I am talking about lies, half-truths that don’t align with what I have seen.
According to him, many statements had been taken out of context, and there was a gap between what the public was being told and what had actually occurred.
He also said that documents outlining the security situation had been submitted over several weeks, including warnings about the erosion of Israeli deterrence. The security establishment had presented an assessment indicating that Israel's enemies recognized the internal divisions within the country, and that the defense minister had also addressed the issue at the time.
Gil also rejected claims that betrayal had led to the massacre. "There was no betrayal," he clarified, warning that those spreading such allegations were undermining the resilience of Israeli society.
Gil told N12's Danny Kushmaro that he thought he would be speaking to a state commission of inquiry about the massacre, which is why he kept his accounts of the day private. He now believes that one will never be formed.
"Three years have passed since October 7, and two years since I retired from the IDF. I hoped a state commission of inquiry would be established to investigate everything. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened, and I doubt it will.”
Gil said that once he realized he wouldn't be speaking to a state commission of inquiry, he felt he needed to speak about his experience on October 7.
"In the past few weeks, I realized I had to come out and say what I knew. Because we saw what happened recently when there is no investigation."
“What the public is being told is not what actually happened,” he added. “This isn’t my truth. It’s the country’s truth.”
The fact that a state commission of inquiry had yet to be established was widening the gap between the facts and the information being presented to the public, Gil said. He called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry to investigate the sequence of events and determine responsibility for the failures.
However, he clarified that there had been no specific warning of an attack from Gaza on the scale and in the manner of the October 7 assault. According to him, the erosion of Israeli deterrence had been identified and brought to the attention of all relevant officials.
Gil told reporters that Netanyahu had heard several warnings before the October 7 massacre about suspicious activity in Gaza, but they were all shot down.
"October 7 was Israel’s failure. Netanyahu heard it all from agency heads, everything that was known. There were suggestions to do targeted strikes in Gaza from time to time, but they were all denied."
He also recounted that in July 2023, while Netanyahu was hospitalized, the head of the Shin Bet requested to speak with him and warned of the possibility of war. He further claimed that before October 7, the head of Military Intelligence and the head of the IDF Operations Directorate had sought to speak with decision-makers and present their assessments, but, according to him, their warnings went unheeded.
This is a developing story.
Walla contributed to this report.