Attorney General Tells High Court She Backs Delaying October 7 Commission of Inquiry Until After Election

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told Israel's High Court of Justice on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 that she supports postponing any decision on establishing a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre until a new government is formed after the October 27 election. She said a state commission is 'clearly the most appropriate legal tool for investigating the events of October 7 and the war,' but that the election period would get in the way of a decision, adding pointedly that 'it's been two years and 10 months since the war broke out and the government still hasn't made a decision.' The filing came in response to the government's own notice — after the Knesset's July 17 dissolution — that it could not complete commission-of-inquiry legislation before the election and asked the court to dismiss the petitions and defer the matter to voters. The Movement for Quality Government, representing more than 35,000 petitioners including bereaved families, rejected the delay, telling the court: 'It is impossible to determine that a state commission of inquiry is essential for uncovering the truth, to warn that the delay may already cause harm to the investigation, and in the same breath propose postponing it again.' The October Council, representing bereaved families, said the government 'planned to blind them and the entire country in the hope that time would cause people to forget the greatest disaster in the country's history.' No independent or political state commission of inquiry has been established nearly three years after the attack.