Netanyahu is to blame for Hamas war, say four out of five Israelis

Families of hostages lead calls for prime minister to ‘own up to failures’

An overwhelming majority of Israelis believe that Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for the deadly Hamas attacks.

A total of 80 per cent said the prime minister should publicly accept the blame for the failures that led to the deaths of at least 1,400 Israelis on the deadliest day in the country’s 75-year-old history.

The figure includes 69 per cent of those who voted for the premier’s Likud party in last year’s election.

Just eight per cent of the public think Netanyahu is not responsible.

Israelis have been fiercely divided over the state response to the terror attacks on Oct 7, but these new figures suggest a united opposition to Netanyahu.

Critics argue that Netanyahu largely ignored military provocation from Hamas since the last major Israeli ground incursion of 2014, and has simultaneously allowed huge sums of cash to flow into Gaza.

Others say that the ongoing corruption scandal that has plagued Netanyahu distracted him from keeping the country secure.

Opening the Knesset’s winter session last week, Netanyahu said there were “many questions surrounding the disaster that befell us 10 days ago” and promised they would be investigated in “every aspect” after the current military mission was completed.

Netanyahu’s coalition partner, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, said the government leadership and security leadership had failed to protect the country but the premier himself has yet to make a clear statement of responsibility.

Israeli politicians have described the attacks as “the greatest failure in the history of Israel”.

Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, said Netanyahu had been warned by Israeli intelligence about the possibility of a Hamas attack, but he was “arrogant”.

“Netanyahu doesn’t have the trust of the people, of the families of those who were slaughtered, or of the commanders and the soldiers in the field,” he told France24.

An editorial page in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz accused Mr Netanyahu of glaring failures. Dmitry Shumsky, a columnist for Haaretz, argued that Mr Netanyahu had pursued a policy of “diplomatic paralysis” in order to avoid negotiations over a two-state solution.

He said this strategy was flawed and has turned Hamas from “a minor terrorist group into an efficient, lethal army with bloodthirsty killers who mercilessly slaughtered innocent Israeli civilians”.

It claimed that “embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians” pushed Hamas to fight.

As Israel looks poised to send ground troops into Gaza, the survey found that 65 per cent of the public backs the possibility of an offensive, while 21 per cent oppose it.

The survey was conducted by the Lazar Institute, along with Panel4All, among 510 respondents on Oct 18 and 19.