Thousands Rally in Tel Aviv for Oct. 7 Inquiry Three Days Before Israel's Election

Since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Israel has gone three years without the state inquiry many families and opposition leaders have demanded. On Saturday, Oct. 24, thousands gathered in Tel Aviv to make that demand one more time, three days before the country votes.

The rally

The event was held in Hostages Square and organized by the October Council, a group founded by families of people taken captive to Gaza. The group billed it as the culminating event of three years of struggle to "uncover the truth, demand accountability and establish a state commission of inquiry."

Netanyahu has refused an inquiry. All hostages or their remains were eventually returned. Netanyahu has been accused of delaying deals that could have freed them sooner.

Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief of staff who leads the centrist Yashar party and is Netanyahu's main rival, attended. The Times of Israel reported he was greeted in Tel Aviv with chants of "Who's coming? The next prime minister."

Yair Golan, who leads the Democrats, also took part. Haaretz reported further antigovernment gatherings elsewhere in Israel.

The vote

Israelis elect parties to the 120-seat Knesset, not a prime minister directly. A bloc needs 61 seats to govern. Polls show Netanyahu's right-wing bloc, in power since late 2022, running level with Eisenkot's, and neither is projected to hit that number.

That means the weeks of coalition talks after Tuesday may matter as much as the ballots. Smaller players could be decisive: Itamar Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power, the Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu, Golan's Democrats, and the Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, who led a government together from 2021 to 2022, are running on a joint slate.

Eisenkot has campaigned on integrity, social cohesion and restoring democratic foundations while keeping a hawkish line on security. He served briefly in Netanyahu's wartime cabinet before resigning and accusing the prime minister of lacking a clear strategy. His son and two nephews were killed serving in Gaza.

Netanyahu's case

Netanyahu's defenders frame the vote differently. Gadi Taub, co-host of Tablet's "Israel Update" podcast, told Fox News Digital the central question is who is best placed to continue the work begun under Netanyahu, chiefly the wars that have dismantled much of the Iranian-led axis around Israel. "The job is not finished," Taub said.

Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government spokesman, told Fox News Digital that Netanyahu wants to avoid being remembered as the man on whose watch Oct. 7 happened. Levy said Netanyahu hopes to claim the military achievements of recent years as his own. He also described an election with "a lot of anger about responsibility for the Oct. 7 massacre and about the social and economic cost of sustaining the war since."

Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, noted that Israelis under 20 "don't even know an Israel without him being prime minister," apart from the Bennett-Lapid interval.

Iran hangs over the final days

Al Jazeera reported that Eisenkot is believed to be less inclined than Netanyahu to resume strikes on Iran. On most other foreign-policy questions, including opposition to a Palestinian state, the leading parties are largely aligned.

President Trump has said on social media he will not hit Iran again before the Nov. 3 U.S. midterms. Asked Saturday how close he was to an attack, he bristled. "Do you really think I'm going to tell you if I'm going to do it?" Trump said. "And there's a possibility I will. There's also a possibility we'll have a nice, big, beautiful agreement."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on state television that Washington disrupted negotiations. "These scoundrels broke the rules of the game," he said, adding that the supreme leader had told officials to "go and finish" the deal. An Iranian military commander separately said Iran will not allow U.S. warships to enter the Persian Gulf.

Regional violence continues

In Jordan, a ninth person died after gunmen opened fire at a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak on Friday, state television reported. More than two dozen people were being treated in hospitals.

In Hebron, Israeli forces carried out arrests and demolitions a day after two Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers and wounded three. Hebron's municipality said up to 300 families left Deir Baha and two adjacent neighborhoods. The army did not respond to questions about the operation. It said Friday that its forces had begun "precise, targeted and thorough searches" in the area the gunmen came from.

Polls open Tuesday, Oct. 27. Whichever bloc falls short will need smaller parties to reach 61, and the first test of that bargaining begins once results are in.

No date has been set for any inquiry into Oct. 7, and Netanyahu has not changed his refusal.