State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman sent a letter to the IDF and the Military Defense requesting the transfer of a series of sensitive documents concerning the IDF’s preparations in the days leading up to the October 7 massacre, as well as the days immediately following it, earlier this month.
The consequences of handing over these documents could be significant for those tasked with transferring them, prompting them to hire top-tier legal counsel.
The list of documents, revealed by Walla, showed that the comptroller wished to know what the IDF knew and did in real time, as well as the extent of information passed from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary during the attack.
According to the document obtained by Walla, the comptroller requested from then-IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi the records of conversations, situation assessments, and General Staff situation summaries and interactions with political leadership from the night of October 5 through the end of October 8.
The comptroller also requested the Chief of Staff’s operations log for those dates, an operational chat log, and his personal schedule.
The comptroller requested that Netanyahu’s former military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil, provide his personal schedule, records of conversations, summaries of situation assessments, consultations, and meetings that took place between October 5 and 8, 2023, in which he participated, as well as documentation of reports given to the prime minister and records of decisions made and directives issued by political leadership.
From the Military Intelligence Directorate, the comptroller requested all operational plans, collection orders, and collection guidelines issued or implemented from October 5 to 8, as well as documentation of conversations and assessments, and the personal schedules of former Head of Military Intelligence Aharon Haliva, the head of the Research Division, the head of the Operations Division, and the head of the Research Department during those dates.
The comptroller requested documents from Intelligence units and Air Force
From the commander of Unit 8200, the comptroller requested the following documents: all plans, collection orders, and relevant operational directives implemented in the unit between October 5–8, 2023, the operations log, and the personal schedule.
At the Southern Command, the comptroller requested documents from the commanding general, the operations officer, and the chief of operations, including defense and collection orders and plans at the command/division/brigade levels in the Gaza sector during those dates, as well as records of conversations, consultations, correspondences, situation assessments, and more.
From the Air Force, the comptroller requested records of alert status and specific force structure on the eve of the attack, along with operational data for the first 24 hours: orders and plans implemented, missions, deployed assets according to schedules, ammunition usage, and targets attacked.
"According to the framework agreed between the State Comptroller and the Chief of Staff—which was given the force of a court ruling yesterday by the High Court of Justice—the Comptroller is conducting a thorough and sweeping audit across all levels: political, military, and civilian," the State Comptroller’s Office stated.
"From the very beginning, the Comptroller announced he would leave no stone unturned in uncovering the truth. A significant part of the audit involves gathering documents from all relevant parties. We do not specify which documents each entity is asked to provide, but thousands of documents have been and continue to be collected from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Defense Ministry, the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, the National Security Council, and all audited bodies. We expect full cooperation to provide the citizens of Israel with answers regarding the October 7 disaster, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest failures in the history of the State of Israel."