The agency stated that "the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers approved during their weekly meeting the formation of an independent, unofficial commission of inquiry to examine the events of October 7, with the new commission to operate outside the framework of the official commissions of inquiry known in Israeli law as state commissions."
She added that "the new committee will be independent and will not be classified as a state committee, but it will have full investigative powers, including summoning the relevant parties and examining documents related to the incident." She said that "the members of the committee will be chosen in a way that seeks to achieve broad consensus within Israeli society," without providing details about the selection mechanism and method.
The broadcasting authority explained that "Netanyahu tasked a special ministerial committee with drafting the mandate (limits of authority) that will define the scope of work of the independent committee, including the topics it will examine, the parties that can be summoned, and the time periods that will be subject to review."
She continued: "The government has given the ministerial committee a deadline of 45 days to submit its recommendations on the final version of the Mandate."
According to the broadcasting authority, "the objective of the independent committee is to examine the course of events and the security and institutional procedures that preceded and accompanied October 7, and its working mechanisms will be determined later after the final mandate is approved," without specifying any particular dates.
"Escaping the truth"
In contrast, the Israeli opposition considered the Netanyahu government’s decision to form an independent and unofficial commission of inquiry to be “an escape from the truth” because it refused to form a commission with powers.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said on his X platform page that the government "is doing everything it can to run away from the truth. What is needed is an official commission of inquiry (a state commission) as stipulated by law, because it is the only one capable of examining the failures independently and comprehensively."
Lapid considered the government's refusal to form a state commission "an insult to the families who have paid a heavy price since the events of October 7," as he put it.
In turn, the head of the "Official Camp" bloc and former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said in a post on X that Netanyahu and his government's decision is "an attempt to create a committee without real powers," and described the committee approved by the government as a "smear committee" that does not meet the need for a broad official investigation.
Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, stated, according to the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, that the government is "establishing a committee without real tools," and that his party will work to "impose the formation of an official inquiry committee" through the available parliamentary and legal channels.
In mid-October, the Supreme Court (Israel's highest judicial body) gave Netanyahu's government "one month" to inform it of the fate of forming an official commission of inquiry into the events of October 7.
Last May, an Israeli civilian commission of inquiry into the events of October 7 said that the government "failed to protect its citizens and must bear responsibility."
The committee explained that it had collected at least 120 testimonies in the investigation proving Israel's failure, noting that it had concluded that Netanyahu "led the country to the greatest disaster in its history,"