JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday the government was taking responsibility for the devastating attack that allowed Hamas militants to enter Israel and kill hundreds of Israeli civilians.

“We have to admit honestly, painfully and with a bowed head – we, the state leadership and the security establishment, have failed in maintaining the security of our citizens,” Smotrich, a key partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, told a news conference.

“We failed to implement the unwritten contract, the first of its kind between a state and its citizens. A contract that was written in blood and is now stained with blood.”