JERUSALEM: Israel’s top court on Thursday examined petitions seeking to force the government to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 raid.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed over 72,500 Palestinians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long refused to establish such a commission, the likes of which Israel has commonly set up in the past to investigate major state-level failings.

According to polls, a large number of Israelis across the political spectrum support the establishment of such a body to determine who is responsible for the authorities’ failure to prevent the deadliest-ever attack on Israel.

Netanyahu resisting formation of commission as long as country is at war

The decision to create a state commission rests with the government, but its members must be appointed by the president of the supreme court.

Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, has accused the court of political bias.

“This honourable court has no authority to compel the government,” the government’s lawyer Michael Rabello said in front of the supreme court judges.

“There is no precedent... not anywhere in the world, not even in India or in any other democratic state, of a court ordering the government to establish a commission of inquiry,” he added.

Netanyahu is resisting the establishment of a state commission of inquiry until the multi-front war it has launched after the October 7, 2023 attack is over.

His government has tried to counteract public calls with a bill introduced by Netanyahu’s Likud party to create a “special state commission of inquiry”.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2026