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Netanyahu Did Not Request IDF Chief Call Before 9:45 on October 7, Report Says

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of Benjamin Netanyahu seated at a conference table between Yoav Gallant in dark civilian clothing and then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi in olive military uniform as the three confer in a glass-walled meeting room, drawn in warm ochre and slate-blue pastel with cross-hatching on sepia newsprint.

A new report says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received calls at 06:29 and 06:40 on October 7, 2023, but did not ask to speak with then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi during or immediately after either call. It places their first conversation at a 09:45 situational assessment, about three hours and 16 minutes after Hamas's attack began. Netanyahu recently said officers had not awakened him because they feared he would order an immediate military response. Earlier reporting placed their first meeting between 09:55 and 10:15, but both accounts say the two did not speak directly for more than three hours.

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