New Knesset subcommittee to oversee IDF October 7 investigations

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee voted on Thursday to form a subcommittee to oversee and examine the IDF’s internal investigations into its conduct before, during, and after the Hamas massacre on October 7.

According to the committee’s statement, “With a National Committee of Investigation lacking, the forum will serve as the FADC’s tool for oversight and examination of all of the IDF’s investigative reports. The subcommittee will summon all of the officials relevant to the investigative reports – whether military, governmental, or civilian.”

FADC chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said in an accompanying statement, “For long months I have been calling for a National Committee of Investigation, which is the unit authorized by law to approach materials with the highest secrecy levels.

“The nature of a vacuum is to be filled, and lacking a National Committee of Investigation, the IDF has begun to investigate itself … Investigations by the IDF and others are not and will not be a replacement for a National Committee of Investigation, which should have been formed long ago,” Edelstein added.

Members of the committee

Edelstein himself will chair the subcommittee, which will also include MKs Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid), Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid), Merav Michaeli (Labor), Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionist Party), Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity), Yinon Azulay (Shas), Ze’ev Elkin (United Right), Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beytenu), Moshe Roth (United Torah Judaism), Limor son Harmelech (Otzma Yehudit), and Boaz Bismuth (Likud).

The subcommittee’s formation comes a number of weeks after the IDF published its first investigation, about the events surrounding Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, and ahead of the staggered release of additional investigations.