Avi Gil, who served as Prime Minister Netanyahu's military secretary from December 2022 to May 2024, said in a Channel 12 interview that hostages who died could have been brought home alive, and were not, for political reasons. Asked directly, Gil said that is accurate, they could have come back before. He described gaps opening between the recommendations of the defense establishment and decisions made by far right ministers, after which Netanyahu changed course. Asked whether the prime minister chose his own political survival over hostages' lives, Gil answered factually, that is exactly what happened.
Gil also alleged an attempt to alter the record of October 7 itself. He said a Prime Minister's Office stenographer told him in January 2024 that Netanyahu's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, had instructed her to change the documented time of a secure call between Gil and Netanyahu from 6:40 or 6:44am, the time actually recorded, to 6:29am. The stenographer refused, telling Gil it is forbidden for me to change it. Gil called it changing the truth, and said is that unusual, I hope so.
The responses split along familiar lines but escalated the stakes. Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot demanded a criminal investigation, saying that while other brothers and sisters in the border region were slaughtered by Hamas, Netanyahu worked on changing protocols instead of saving them, and promised a state commission of inquiry if his Yashar party wins the election. Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman called on the attorney general to immediately open an investigation against the prime minister and his people on charges of treason and conspiracy.
Netanyahu's own response did not deny the substance so much as redirect it, accusing Gil of orchestrating a cover-up and saying his former aide chose not to wake the prime minister up in time on 7 October, calling Gil's remarks an attempt to obscure his own failure. The claim and the counter-claim cannot both be the full story, and with 19 days left before the election, the question of whose account investigators eventually credit now has a date attached to it that voters will not wait for.