state Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said at the Knesset Finance Committee during the discussion today (Wednesday, 20.12.23) concerning the 2024 budget of the Office of the State Comptroller that "On 7.10 the borders of the State of Israel were breached and the accursed Hamas terrorists did whatever they liked in the Israeli localities, unhindered. Thousands of Israeli citizens were massacred, wounded, raped and abducted and abandoned to their fate on Simchat Torah.
As we showed in the Ombudsman's report we published yesterday, hundreds of thousands of residents of the Confrontation Lines in the north and south, who have been evacuated from their homes, have become needy and affected by the government's failure to deal with the home front shortly after the massacre. This is a reality-changing event on a national level. The reality that existed until the day of the massacre cannot continue. This premise underlies the planning of the state audit of the events leading up to the massacre, the day of the massacre itself, and the events that Israeli citizens faced afterwards.
For about two months I have toured the length and breadth of the country, in northern and southern border localities, in hotels housing evacuees in Eilat, the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and Tiberias, in hospitals and in the Shura camp. The defects revealed in the defense response on the day of the massacre continued in a series of discrepancies in the civilian response to hundreds of thousands of evacuees upon the outbreak of the war.
The organizational audit of the handling of the home front will begin within the next few days, with the start of the audit about the defense forces being conducted in accordance with the development of the war, in view of the fact that the war is still going on and that for more than 70 days IDF officers and soldiers are toiling day and night in a bloody war inside the Gaza Strip and all Israeli citizens must support them at this time. Nevertheless, it is clear even now that the Israeli government and the defense forces must conduct a thorough internal examination as to how the great failure on 7.10 occurred.
In conclusion, I wish to send condolences to the families of the fallen and the murdered, wish a speedy recovery to the IDF fighters and the victims of hostile action, and pray that the hostages will soon return home".