Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a “quiet holiday period” as a central objective days before the October 7 massacre in 2023, according to a report by Channel 12 on Tuesday. The channel aired additional excerpts it said were drawn from Netanyahu’s remarks in September 2023 security discussions, presenting them as further evidence that senior officials framed the pre-October 7 period around a goal of maintaining calm and avoiding escalation.
The televised quotes included a line dated September 10, 2023, describing a “quiet holiday period” as a central objective, as well as excerpts dated September 12, 2023, from what Channel 12 described as a cabinet meeting in which the prime minister stressed “the importance of maintaining calm” in the coming months and said that, given the situation, “any proactive move” should be weighed.
The Tuesday broadcast followed a Channel 12 report aired Sunday night by the same reporter, which presented what it described as a classified written summary by Netanyahu of an October 1, 2023, security meeting held six days before the October 7 massacre. That report said the meeting included Israel’s top security leadership and that Netanyahu’s summary emphasized operating “with balance” to “cool the arenas” and prevent escalation.
According to the Sunday report as summarized by Channel 12 and reported by The Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu’s October 1 summary included instructions to advance a civilian arrangement with Hamas and expand the use of humanitarian tools as leverage, while also raising operational readiness for targeted killings recommended by the security establishment, including against Hamas leadership.
Channel 12 also aired criticism it attributed to unnamed senior security officials, who alleged that Netanyahu was selectively extracting partial sentences from lengthy discussions while stripping them of wider context.
Netanyahu facing backlash to pre-October 7 protocols
The disclosures landed amid a widening political fight over Netanyahu’s release of selected protocols and intelligence materials linked to the lead-up to October 7. In recent days, Netanyahu’s office published documents as part of his response to probes by the State Comptroller’s Office into the October 7 massacre, a process that has also been entangled in legal disputes.
In a separate clash highlighted by The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, former defense minister Yoav Gallant called Netanyahu “a liar” in a Meet the Press interview, accusing him of “engineering” public perception by stitching together snippets from long discussions.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid also accused Netanyahu of falsifying the reality reflected in the protocols and said a letter had been sent urging a criminal investigation, according to a Jerusalem Post report published Monday.
Channel 12’s Tuesday report did not publish the full documents it referenced on-air, and The Jerusalem Post could not independently verify the excerpts shown on television.
The conflict over pre-war decision-making has intensified in recent weeks as Netanyahu’s office and political rivals trade claims about what senior officials understood about the risk of attack, and what policy line guided decision-making toward Gaza in the months leading up to October 7. The state comptroller’s review, and the political and legal battles around it, have become one of the main arenas for that broader struggle.