Ehud Olmert, Israel’s embattled prime minister, emerged damaged but unbroken from a highly critical report into his government’s handling of the 2006 war in Lebanon that accused the country’s political and military leaders of “severe failures and faults”.

Eliyahu Winograd, the former judge who led the five-member investigation panel, said the war had failed to achieve its objectives and undermined Israel’s standing in the region. However, the report’s direct criticism of the prime minister was more muted than expected, reserving much of the harshest criticism for the military.