It is not clear whether the ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas and negotiated by the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye will survive its first phase. Since it began, Israeli forces have not stopped killing Palestinians in Gaza, and Israeli settlers are still killing them in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made his plans to keep Israeli forces in Gaza abundantly clear as right-wing Knesset members are publicly planning to annex the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in contravention of resolutions of the Security Council, pronouncements of the International Court of Justice and even the position of the US.
More than two years have passed since the world condemned the brutal Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, Israel has demanded a singular focus on the savagery of that day and no mention of its illegal occupation and inhumane blockade of Gaza, which have been continuing long before that day and of the genocidal collective punishment of the Palestinian people in the days thereafter.
So, let us focus on that fateful day and examine the answers given by Israel and ask the questions that haven’t been answered yet.
According to Israel’s account, Hamas killed 1,129 people on Oct. 7, including 685 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the Israeli military and security forces and 71 foreigners. As such, while most of the people killed during the attack and Israeli forces response thereto were civilians, at least a third may have been combatants.
Hamas attacked military targets on the border and, according to the International Criminal Court, committed war crimes against civilians and civilian areas within Israel. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups also took 251 men, women and children hostage on Oct. 7. The Israeli government has confirmed that more than half of the hostages were foreign or dual nationals. They include 54 from Thailand, 15 from Argentina, 12 from Germany, 12 from the US, 6 from France, 6 from Russia, 5 from Nepal, 2 from the Philippines, 2 from Tanzania, 2 from the United Kingdom, 1 from China and 1 from Sri Lanka. According to France24, the hostages also included 19 Bedouin Arabs.
The prevailing narrative also includes many false claims long debunked by Israel’s own media, including the most heinous of the lies concerning 40 beheaded babies. According to Haaretz, “The extensive evidence of crimes against humanity committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7 should not be contaminated by unverified stories” disseminated by Israeli search and rescue groups, like Zaka, a volunteer organization, and army officers.
Importantly, questions still accrue regarding the Israeli government’s own actions, such as its apparent disregard of all the warnings before that day and its inexplicably delayed response on that day. Israeli and Western media have also reported that a number of those killed on Oct. 7 were killed by friendly fire — by the Israeli forces pursuant to the Hannibal Directive — a controversial policy introduced in 2014 and reportedly canceled in 2016 that “gave permission for Israeli forces to fire on enemies holding their comrades hostage — even at risk to those hostages.”
For example, in December 2023, the Times of Israel reported that Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram cited the Hannibal Directive and confessed that he had ordered his tanks to shell a house in Kibbutz Beiri “even at the cost of civilian casualties” to resolve a standoff with the Hamas hostage-takers. Haaretz subsequently reported that 13 of the 14 civilians in that house were killed by Israeli fire.
In yet another Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronot, investigative journalist Ronen Bergman reported that instructions were given “to stop ‘at all costs’ any attempt by Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza” and concluded that “70 vehicles were destroyed by Israeli aircraft and tanks to prevent them being driven into Gaza, killing everyone inside.”
The Israeli leadership owes the international community and, above all, the Israeli people the answers to the many lingering questions about the events of Oct. 7, before and since.
The main questions concern the government’s situational awareness and response:
1. Why did the government ignore the warnings from Israeli soldiers weeks before the attack, including the women soldiers monitoring the border surveillance cameras of Hamas’s preparations for an assault against Israel?
2. Why did the government ignore the warnings from Egypt three days before the attack, as confirmed by the US House Foreign Relations Committee, that “an explosion of the situation [was] coming, and very soon, and it would be big”?
3. Why were Israeli troops “standing back when under attack, instead of advancing”?
4. When the attack occurred, why did it take 7 hours for the Israeli military and security forces to respond?
5. In light of Brig. Gen. Hiram’s confession, how many of those killed in the kibbutzim on Oct. 7 were killed by the Israeli military or security forces?
6. In light of Bergman’s investigation, how many of those killed in the Nova concert on Oct. 7 were killed by the Israeli military or security forces?
Several questions also arise about Israel’s alleged compliance with international law.
7. Will the government explain why it was facilitating the transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas and is now arming criminal gangs in Gaza?
8. Will the government present credible evidence substantiating its accusations that Hamas was operating from the hospitals, schools, bakeries, mosques and churches it targeted in Gaza?
9. Will the government present credible evidence substantiating the proportionality of their use of force when the Israeli military’s own data reportedly indicates a civilian death rate of 83 percent in Gaza?
Finally, there are questions about the government’s efforts to secure the release of the hostages.
10. How many hostages were released because of the three negotiated ceasefires?
11. How many hostages were rescued because of Israeli military action in Gaza?
12. How many ceasefire proposals, including provisions on the release of the hostages, did the Israeli government reject between October 2023 and October 2025?
Unlike some Israeli media, the Israeli public may not also be ready to ask questions about the toll the last two years have taken on the Palestinians. The world and especially the Israeli people should at least and at long last ask the Israeli government to answer the 12 long-overdue questions above regarding what it did and did not to do to protect Israeli citizens on that fateful day and what it has done since in their name.
This essay was updated to correct the description of Ronen Bergman in the second reference to him. He is not a brigadier general.
This is an opinion essay.
We welcome your comments on this article.. What are your thoughts on the questions about Israel & the Gaza war?
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Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 30 years of UN and other experience, including as a former senior legal officer in the UN and the IAEA, with expertise in peacekeeping, peace enforcement, disarmament and counterterrorism. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in international relations from Harvard University and a master’s in foreign service and a J.D. from Georgetown University. She is the founder and director of MAK LAW INTERNATIONAL and an affiliate of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict. She has co-authored several publications, including Empowering the UN Security Council: Reforms to Address Modern Threats, the UN Security Council Conflict Management Handbook and Protection of Civilians.
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This article is a bold and necessary call for accountability. Mona Ali Khalil’s essay in PassBlue raises incisive, long-overdue questions about the Israeli government’s actions before, during, and after the October 7 attacks, demanding transparency and justice.
Khalil’s piece is powerfully structured, moving from the immediate horrors of the Hamas assault to the broader context of occupation, blockade, and military response. She challenges the dominant narrative by highlighting credible reports of friendly fire, the controversial Hannibal Directive, and the disproportionate civilian toll in Gaza. Her legal expertise lends weight to the demand for answers, especially regarding international law violations and hostage negotiations.
What makes this article especially compelling is its insistence that Israeli citizens deserve clarity—not just about Hamas’s crimes, but about their own government’s decisions. Khalil’s voice is firm, principled, and deeply humane. It’s a must-read for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of the conflict’s complexities
Thanks for Dr. Khalil.A real great dissertation that took much efforts to achieve.However, going in depth, we will realize that the fascists in Israel were behind the war even before October 7. The sequence of events is crystal clear. Those gang of the far right ministers were pushing to find execuses to destroy the Palestinians 💯. Still they want to apply their strategy. Ceasefire is not respected. BN is still beating around the bush trying to gain time and block the agreement signed by Presidents: Trump,Erdogan, Sisi and Sheikh Tamil.
Mona, thank you for this contribution and would like to ask the entire world community to help Israelis and the Arabs to stop killing each other, enough is enough and no one is winning or will be winning out of this situation. Can one day Israel and Arab countries live together in peace and harmony because they need each other? The world has to stop being hypocritical and end this war which has been ongoing forever and exploited by the carnivore Western world!