Father of Slain Nahal Oz Lookout Roni Eshel Demands State Inquiry at Habima Square Protest

Eyal Eshel, father of IDF surveillance soldier Roni Eshel who was killed at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023, addressed roughly 200 pro-democracy, anti-government protesters at Tel Aviv's Habima Square on August 15, 2026, renewing his call for a full state commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to the attack. Eshel accused the government of prioritizing politics over accountability and said warnings from surveillance soldiers about Hamas rebuilding capability in Gaza were being dismissed just as similar warnings were ignored before October 7. 'As though flags can hide blood, as though slogans can hide the truth,' he told the crowd, adding: 'Israel today is in the hardest place, against the whole world. But the truth is that the first place we need to look isn't the world — we need to look in the mirror.' He said a country that does not investigate 'the biggest disaster in its history' cannot heal. The speech follows Eshel's August 13 disclosure to KAN News that witnesses reported hearing Farsi spoken by some terrorists at the Nahal Oz base.