Israeli Security After the Oct. 7 Attack: When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Becomes More Responsible for the Security of Gaza, he resigns

Noam’s phone buzzed with a text message, indicating that Hamas had entered his community in southern Israel.

The father told his son that he should stay in a safe room. After grabbing his pistol, he hopped into his car and left Tel Aviv, making phone calls along the way.

“I tried the chief of staff, the southern commander and the division commander — I know all of them — but nobody responded to me,” Tibon, 62, tells NPR.

Israeli officials said the war was triggered by an assault by Hamas in which at least 1,200 people were killed and hundreds were taken as hostages to Gaza. Israel’s stated goals for the war are to dismantle Hamas’s military strength and ability to rule Gaza, as well as to bring the hostages back home.

A Nov. 3 poll found 76% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. On Nov. 7, a leading pro-Netanyahu newspaper reversed its stance and ran an editorial calling for his ouster after the war. Polls taken last month show Netanyahu would lose if elections were held now.

In power for most of the past 16 years, Netanyahu has long portrayed himself as tough on security. Critics say he gambled with the focus and moved away from it.

The view in the Israeli government is that so long as Mr. Abbas has not directly condemned Hamas for the Oct. 7 attacks, any agreement to install his authority in Gaza as a replacement for the group would make Mr. Netanyahu look weak in the eyes of many Israelis, according to an Israeli government official who was not authorized to speak openly about internal discussions.

And when Netanyahu earlier this year launched a controversial reform of the country’s judicial system, weakening the courts and giving himself more control over them, it divided Israelis and prompted massive street protests.

To Tibon, it was all a diversion from Israel’s own security. Since the beginning of October, Israelis have come together against the prime minister.

The official from Netanyahu’s party in the country’s south resigned from the party on live TV.

“I place the blame on the Israeli government. I call here on all my friends, members of the Likud Central Committee, to take a similar step, in view of this incredible failure,” said Tamir Idan, head of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, waving his resignation letter.

Israel’s defense minister, military chief of staff, and Shin Bet head all personally accept responsibility for the security lapse.

Netanyahu admits mistakes were made. He told ABC News on Monday: “The responsibility of a government is to protect the people and clearly that responsibility wasn’t met.”

The prime minister is happy to answer questions himself but will make an investigation after the war is over. He’s been asked repeatedly about his future at the news conferences.

Netanyahu told a group of foreign reporters that he intended to resign from his post. “We’re going to leave them to rot in the history books.”

The slogan “Lech ha bayta” is one of the slogans from the earlier protests over the judicial reforms. Protesters have gathered outside the Israeli legislature and at Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.

The supporters of Netanyahu say the same people led previous rallies against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms. They say the prime minister wasn’t to blame for the attacks.

A woman who lives next to a group of hostages toldNPR she wants Netanyahu to resign immediately.

But she says the hostage families are divided. Privately, they’re criticizing Netanyahu, Haitovsky says. Many people have been hesitant to speak up. Even some of Netanyahu’s fiercest critics say war is not the time for political recriminations.

According to the author of a biography called Cracking the Netanyahu Code, Netanyahu is banking on Israelis not wanting to change leaders during a war.

Netanyahu is a realist according to Mualem. He believes he’s got a window of opportunity to salvage his legacy while the war is underway, she says. He knows he is likely to lose his job in the end.

The Fate of the West Bank and the Birth of the State of Israel: Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7

“When I got there, I knocked on the window and said, ‘Dad is here.’ “My granddaughter, who is 3 years old, said ‘Grandpa came!’” “And you know, that was the greatest moment of my life.”

Locked in their basement, his family survived the Hamas attacks that day. It’s only a change of Israeli leadership that’s going to make sure no other family goes through what he did.

Netanyahu said that the Israeli Army would be the sole force to take military responsibility for the Gaza Strip after the war ended, and that he saw no future role for the Palestinian Authority in that area.

A spokesman for Mr. Abbas emphasized on Sunday that the separation of Gaza from the West Bank was doomed to fail. In comments carried by the official Palestinian Authority news agency, Mr. Abu Rudeineh said that a consolidation of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem would not bring security to anyone.

Asked about a potential hostage deal, Mr. Netanyahu told Meet the Press there “could be” one, but added, “The less I say about it, the more I’ve increased the chances that it materializes.” Israeli representatives have been in talks with other people.

As well as the lack of condemnation, Mr. Netanyahu pointed to the teaching of hatred of Israel to children and monetary payments to assailants convicted of attacks against Israelis — all common Israeli accusations against the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank.

“The massacre of Oct. 7 proved once and for all that in every place that Israel does not have security control, terrorism entrenches itself,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Saturday. It comes back to hit us, the West Bank in particular, according to the biblical names.

Establishing an independent Palestinian state in those areas is what stability will be achieved by, said Mr. Abu Rudeineh.