Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly blamed the military and the Shin Bet for the failures surrounding the October 7 Hamas attack, saying that “no one woke me up.” But a detailed reconstruction of his actions that morning has raised questions about delays, missing calls and inconsistencies in his own account.
The timeline of events has become a major issue in Israel as officials, military commanders and intelligence agencies face growing scrutiny over what they knew before the attack and how they responded once it began.
Netanyahu was at his private residence in Caesarea when the attack began in the early hours of October 7, 2023. According to his own timeline, the first warning came at 6:29 a.m., when military aide General Avi Gil contacted him via WhatsApp.
The call was not recorded. Netanyahu and Gil spoke again at 6:40 a.m. over a secure line for four minutes. Netanyahu later said he angrily questioned why the intelligence available to him had not revealed the scale of the threat.
He also asked about mobilizing reservists, the possibility of targeting Hamas leaders and sealing the border with Gaza, saying he was particularly concerned that Israeli civilians could be taken hostage.
Military investigations later found that Israeli forces were unable to seal the Gaza border for hours. The division stationed there, consisting of around 767 soldiers, was confronted by an estimated 5,000 Hamas militants.
But Netanyahu did not immediately contact either IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi or Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, an omission that has drawn particular attention.
Questions over Netanyahu’s journey to military headquarters
At around 7:30 a.m., Netanyahu said preparations were underway for him to travel to the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv and that he arrived at the underground war room at 8 a.m.
However, Shin Bet records reportedly place his arrival later, at either 8:22 or 9:03 a.m. Other sources cited by Israel’s Channel 12 have suggested that Netanyahu may not have reached the military headquarters until between 9 and 9:30 a.m.
Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid has questioned why it would take so long to organize the convoy.
“There is no real reason for a convoy to take 45 minutes to organize,” Lapid said, arguing that Netanyahu’s security detail could have been on the road within minutes.
The timing has also been questioned by people living near Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, who said the prime minister appeared to have left later than his official account suggests.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had already arrived at the Kirya at around 7:30 a.m., despite living about 80 kilometers away. Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea was roughly 20 kilometers from the military headquarters.
During the journey, Netanyahu spoke with Gallant, who told him that authorities still lacked a clear picture of what was happening.
But Netanyahu still did not contact Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. More significantly, he had yet to speak directly with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi — a conversation that would not take place until several hours after the attack began.
At 8:40 a.m., Gallant summoned Bar and Halevi to the first emergency meeting. Netanyahu was not present.
At 9:30 a.m., roughly three hours after the attack began, Netanyahu finally convened his own meeting.
At 9:47 a.m., General Avi Gil reportedly read for the first time an assessment prepared by Ronen Bar at 5:15 a.m., about an hour before the Hamas assault began.
That has raised another key question: what exactly did the Shin Bet know before the attack, and why did it take several hours for the government to receive the assessment?
Netanyahu has cited the episode as evidence that critical intelligence remained within the security services instead of reaching the political leadership.
Netanyahu speaks with military chiefs
At 9:55 a.m., Netanyahu held his first conversation with Halevi. The meeting also included Ronen Bar, Gallant, Mossad chief David Barnea, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and military operations chief General Oded Basiuk.
One of Netanyahu’s advisers, Topaz Luk, later defended the prime minister’s response, saying Netanyahu was the only senior official who appeared to be functioning effectively amid the chaos.
“He was the only person who was functioning and managing events,” Luk said, describing the military and security leadership as being in a state of unprecedented shock.
At 10:30 a.m., Netanyahu received his first call from a foreign leader, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who at the time had not yet become NATO secretary general.
At 11:35 a.m., Netanyahu addressed the Israeli public by video.
“Citizens of Israel, we are at war,” he said.
He then returned to his Tel Aviv office at around 12:30 p.m. for a meeting with the finance, foreign, national security, housing and strategic affairs ministers.
At 1:45 p.m., almost seven hours after the attack began, Netanyahu ordered the destruction of Hamas forces that had entered Israel. However, he also instructed officials to maintain their focus on the West Bank and Hezbollah.
Later in the afternoon, Netanyahu spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron at 3:15 p.m. and US President Joe Biden at 4:15 p.m.
Lapid accuses Netanyahu of inaction
At 4:30 p.m., Netanyahu met with opposition leader Yair Lapid, who later offered a harsh assessment of the prime minister’s response.
Lapid rejected Netanyahu’s repeated claim that he would have acted differently had he been woken earlier.
“I am one of the few people who met with him on October 7,” Lapid said. “I was sitting with him. I know what was happening there. So I can ask: when they woke you up, what did you do?”
According to Lapid, Netanyahu remained largely inactive until the late afternoon and did not personally initiate significant military actions.
Lapid claimed that Netanyahu did not speak directly with affected communities, move military brigades, issue independent orders, direct operations toward southern Israel or order the evacuation of communities.
He also criticized Netanyahu for refusing to remove far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, arguing that the prime minister had been unwilling to establish a national unity government.
Netanyahu has dismissed such accusations as political propaganda and “false allegations.”
Instead, he has continued to place responsibility on the military and intelligence leadership, arguing that Ronen Bar and Herzi Halevi had received warning signs hours before the attack.
“If they had ordered the attack to be stopped instead of fearing an escalation, and if they had informed me in time, that horrible massacre could have been prevented,” Netanyahu has argued.
The competing accounts have left fundamental questions over the events of October 7 unresolved. Israel is expected to continue examining the intelligence failures and the political and military response, with a formal inquiry expected to address who knew what before the attack, when they knew it and whether the massacre could have been prevented.
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