On the third anniversary of the Hamas‑led assault that left 163 Israelis dead and 19 hostages, residents of the kibbutz Kfar Aza marched silently toward the armory where the tragedy began.
At the broken fence just before dawn on 7 Oct, a small civil‑defence squad was wiped out, and the community was left wounded by an unprecedented breach of its security perimeter.
Survivors demand that Israel’s leadership, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accept responsibility and launch an independent state commission to investigate who failed to prevent the attack.
Despite invitations from opposition and civil‑society groups, Netanyahu has refused a court‑ordered inquiry, proposing instead a politically appointed ‘national commission’ that critics say would lack impartiality.
The failure to hold those in power accountable has become a pivotal issue in the upcoming elections, as Netanyahu campaigns on a security platform that has already shaped the region’s policy for more than a decade.
As the nation answers the question of what went wrong and whether the system can be trusted to protect its citizens, the debate over accountability presses on and may finally force a reckoning in this war‑torn country.
