Netanyahu: October 7 wouldn’t have happened if they woke me up

‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a recent Channel 14 interview that the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 operation would have unfolded completely differently if security chiefs had woken him during the night before the assault.

Asked directly whether the operation would have happened had he been awakened earlier, Netanyahu replied: “You want the truth? Yes. It would have looked completely different. Completely different, I think.”

He later reiterated: “You asked me what would have happened if they had woken me up — it would not have happened.”

He clarified that Hamas had prepared the attack, adding, “I’m not telling you that nothing would have happened.”

Netanyahu argued that senior officials, including former ‘Israeli’ military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, former Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, and former Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, received multiple warning indicators overnight but chose not to alert him.

He cited protocols from Bar’s statements, submitted in a High Court dispute, that prioritized “covert medium readiness so as not to create a miscalculation” and advised avoiding “broad activity in order to avoid miscalculation.”

According to the prime minister, these leaders operated under the prevailing “conception” that Hamas was deterred and feared that waking him would prompt an aggressive response that might escalate into firefights.

“They knew exactly what I would do,” Netanyahu said.

“They knew I would activate the air force there and I would wake up all of the IDF and I wouldn’t let anyone approach the fences, we would kill them immediately.”

He concluded: “If they had woken me, everything would have looked different. And that’s the story of October 7.”

Netanyahu insisted that wartime protocols and records will eventually confirm his account.

He claimed State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman was “astonished” after reviewing relevant material and stated: “When all those protocols come out, you will know the truth.”

He has long maintained that the security establishment, not the political leadership, failed by repeatedly assuring the government that Hamas sought economic benefits and posed no imminent threat of a major attack.

The remarks come amid ongoing debates over “accountability” nearly three years after the events of October 7.

Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected calls for an independent state commission of inquiry, arguing its outcome would be “predetermined,” while favoring other forms of review.

In earlier statements and a 55-page response to the state comptroller, Netanyahu has blamed intelligence and defensive shortcomings, past withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, and the security bodies’ assessments—even ones issued shortly before the attack—that downplayed the risk of a broad campaign.

Critics, including opposition figures and some former officials, have accused him of shifting blame and selectively presenting documents.

Netanyahu has consistently distanced himself from the pre-attack “conception” of deterrence, asserting he never underestimated Hamas’s desire to “destroy Israel”.

“There was never any underestimation [on my part]… As for [Hamas’s] desire to destroy us, [to underestimate] that is such a disconnect from reality,” he said in the Channel 14 appearance.