Israel's Lebanon war inquiry commission levelled scathing criticism against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an interim report today.
The government-appointed panel found Mr Olmert did not have a "well-processed plan" when he launched the air, sea and land campaign last July after Hizbullah guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, according to a segment of the report.
Former Supreme Justice Eliyahu Winograd hands Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the Lebanon war inquiry report today
The commission criticised what it called Mr Olmert's severe failures in judgment in going to war. It was not immediately clear whether the report included a call for Mr Olmert to quit.
"We will definitely study your material . . . and ensure that in any future threat scenario against Israel, the difficulties and faults you cited will be corrected," Mr Olmert said as he received a copy of the findings.
Mr Olmert has said the 34-day conflict improved Israel's security by banishing Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah from its frontier strongholds and boosting a UN peacekeeper force in southern Lebanon.
Aides said before the interim findings were released that Mr Olmert had no intention of stepping down.
The commission of two jurists, two former generals and a public policy expert did not call in the report for Mr Olmert or his defence minister, Amir Peretz, who was also heavily criticised, to resign.
Mr Olmert's approval ratings plunged to single digits in opinion polls after the inconclusive war, and a US-initiated dialogue between the veteran politician and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has shown few results.
Hizbullah fired 4,000 rockets into Israel during the fighting, forcing a million residents into shelters. Israel sent warplanes to bomb in southern Beirut neighbourhoods, Hizbullah strongholds.
In the Lebanon war about 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, including an estimated 270 Hizbullah gunmen; the remainder were civilians. Some 41 Israeli civilians and 117 soldiers died on the Israeli side.