JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s official government watchdog issued a long-awaited report Tuesday in which it found the military was ill-prepared to counter the threat of underground tunnels used by Hamas militants from Gaza during the 2014 war, and that the Cabinet was not provided enough information to make proper decisions about it.
The state comptroller’s report found faults in both the military and government, unleashing immediate infighting over who was to blame. While the report added to a growing list of political headaches for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it did not appear to pose any immediate threat to him.
The report found that the military was aware of the vast underground tunnel network Hamas had built well ahead of the war, but did not properly assess its threat. As a result, forces were not prepared to deal with them and had to improvise without the necessary intelligence and preparation.
On the political level, the comptroller found that Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon considered the tunnels to be a “strategic threat” but did not convey this to the rest of the decision-making Security Cabinet.
“It would be proper for the Cabinet to first outline the strategic goals and then, based upon that, the military prepare its operational plans to achieve those goals,” the report read.