Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the Israeli prime minister, has claimed an opposition figure was aware of the plan for Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack before it happened.
Her remarks, which triggered outrage across Israel’s opposition, highlight the country’s deep political polarisation ahead of close-fought elections on October 27.
In a television interview broadcast on Monday evening, Sara Netanyahu lashed out at Yair Golan, the former deputy military chief of staff who heads Israel’s centre-left Democrats party.
On the morning of October 7, upon hearing about the Hamas attack, Golan rushed to southern Israel to rescue at least six people at the site of the Nova music festival, where at least 370 people were killed.
Netanyahu’s wife claimed that Golan was “already dressed and ready” at dawn that day, “while others knew nothing, including the prime minister”.
Sara Netanyahu’s interview was broadcast on Israel’s Channel 14, which is close to the government. The comments triggered swift outrage from the opposition.
In a post on X, Golan threatened to sue the first lady for 2.5 million shekels (around $830,000) unless she issued “an apology within 24 hours and compensation to be donated to survivors of the Nova” festival.
“Sara Netanyahu spread a false conspiracy in an attempt to rewrite October 7, turning those who went out to save lives into traitors and those who abandoned Israel’s security into victims,” he said, in a jab at the prime minister.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has billed himself as the guarantor of the country’s safety, has deflected blame for the attack, saying that security officials should have woken him from his sleep.
Golan’s party said it strongly condemned Sara Netanyahu’s “vile and deceitful” remarks.
“Spreading conspiracies against Major General Yair Golan, and smearing his heroism on October 7, is crossing a red line that borders on insanity,” it wrote on X.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief who has emerged as the frontrunner to challenge Netanyahu, slammed the “mad conspiracy of betrayal” spread by the premier’s wife.
In a post on X, he said the comments were “intended only to stoke hatred and perpetuate Netanyahu’s rule”.
Sara Netanyahu’s accusations reflect recurrent conspiracy theories among a part of the Israeli political class.
According to a poll conducted for Channel 13 in August, 40 percent of Israelis, and 63 percent of voters for the current right-wing coalition, believe that internal treason led to the October 7 attack — the deadliest day in Israel’s history.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead, into Gaza.
Israel responded with a massive offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 73,462 people, according to the Palestinian territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
By Agencies
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