I24 NEWS
Netanyahu releases Oct. 7 timeline to shift the blame-but exposes a 3½-hour delay
Joe Brown
September 3, 2026

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office has published a detailed account of his movements and decisions on the morning of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in an apparent effort to reinforce his argument that Israel’s security establishment failed to warn him while there was still time to prepare communities along the Gaza border. The chronology portrays Netanyahu as acting decisively once informed: questioning the absence of prior intelligence, considering the elimination of Hamas’s leadership, ordering a full mobilization of reservists and demanding that the Gaza boundary be sealed. But the same timeline highlights a politically difficult gap. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu was first told at 6:29 a.m. that an attack was underway. The full situation assessment with Israel’s senior security leadership began at 9:55 am—three hours and 26 minutes later, as Israeli communities were being overrun and hostages taken into Gaza. The release comes amid a renewed battle over responsibility for Israel’s worst security failure. READ MORE