Israel launches airstrikes in Gaza after rocket attack

The comptroller’s report is the latest in a series of Israeli internal-investigations following wars including the 1973 surprise attack by Egypt on Yom Kippur.

The tunnels were among the Palestinians’ most effective weapons during the 50-day conflict.

Tel Aviv retaliated against the kidnappings by arresting several hundred Hamas members in the West Bank, leading the group to fire dozens of rockets into Israel.

The war damaged Israel’s image overseas, briefly disrupted traffic to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, and brought calls by Palestinians for war crimes charges to be brought against Israel at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The teens were found dead a week before the war began July 7.

A total of 74 people – 68 soldiers, 11 of whom were killed in cross-border tunnel attacks; and 6 civilians – died on the Israeli side of the conflict.

Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians were also killed during the war.

Israel has vowed a harsher response to Hamas’ “provocation” in future.

The comptroller also criticized Netanyahu for failing to consider diplomatic alternatives in Gaza and not presenting such a possibility to the Security Cabinet for its consideration.

The report concludes that the military initially believed it could quickly neutralize the threat of tunnels from outside Gaza. They are accused of not correctly assessing the Hamas’ rocket capabilities and not addressing the threat posed by cross-border tunnels built by Hamas.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a blistering attack on State Comptroller Joseph Shapiro’s report, due for publication Tuesday, accusing him of missing out on the really important lessons learned from the 2014 anti-terror Operation Defensive Edge.

These tunnels were one of the main reasons cited by Israeli officials for starting the offensive.

Earlier February, Israel struck Gaza with air and artillery strikes, which injured three Palestinians, after a rocket was launched from Gaza.

“No cabinet in the history of the state was updated more”, he told his Likud party’s parliamentary faction Monday, according to Israel’s Channel 2 TV.

Yaalon dismissed the complaints as untrue and grandstanding. That we weren’t prepared and we lost. “It’s nonsense”, he wrote on his Facebook page.

“Significant and necessary information that the cabinet ministers required in order to make their best decisions. was not brought before the ministers in a satisfactory manner in the discussions that preceded the [war]”, the report said.