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October 7 Attack

Why Netanyahu Wasn't Woken on October 7

Channel 13's Or Heller discussed the critical hours before Hamas's attack, revealing what security chiefs believed that night

Military Correspondent Discusses Why Netanyahu Wasn't Woken on October 7

The question of decision-making and the failure to update political leadership during the night between October 6 and 7 continues to dominate public discourse in Israel. Or Heller, Channel 13's military correspondent, spoke with Ariel Segal and Eyal Berkowitz on Radio 103FM, analyzing how security chiefs handled those critical hours.

Heller explained the challenge of retrospectively examining that night. "The great difficulty in analyzing that night is the difficulty of separating what we know happened from getting into the heads of those who were awake that night and their mistakes," he said during the program.

He addressed the assessment that prevailed among intelligence officials and senior command that night, explaining what lay behind the decision not to update Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defense Minister. "If Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi had been convinced there would be a breach into an Israeli community, there's no doubt they would have woken the Prime Minister and Defense Minister," the military correspondent argued.

The comments shed light on the intelligence picture understood by Israel's top security officials in the hours before Hamas launched its unprecedented assault from Gaza, which caught the country off guard despite warning signs, that have since become the subject of intense scrutiny.

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