steampunk heart
Israel

IDF intel chief Aharon Haliva announces resignation over October 7 failures – reports

The chief of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, is due to announce that he is stepping down, the Ynet news site reports.

Following the October 7 onslaught, Haliva said he bears responsibility for the failures that led to the Hamas attack.

It is unclear when Haliva will resign, as the IDF will need to find a replacement.

Haliva is also currently involved in the army’s internal investigations of its failures in the lead-up to the Hamas October 7 massacre.

  • The probes are due to be presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi by the beginning of June.

Source: TOI

The resignation letter from Major-General Aharon Haliva has been provided to journalists.

  • “On Saturday, October 7th 2023, Hamas committed a deadly surprise attack against the state of Israel. The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,” he said.
  • “I carry that black day with me ever since. Day after day, night after night. I will forever carry with me the terrible pain of the war.”

Haliva is the first high-ranking official to step down for failing to prevent the attack.

Source: Al Jazeera

The resignation of Israel’s military intelligence chief was expected, and now political leaders are likely to feel increased pressure to assume the blame for Hamas’s October attack.

Political analyst Yossi Mekelberg noted members of the military leadership said they would resign once the war on Gaza was over. But as the conflict drags on with no end in sight, Aharon Haliva’s move to quit seemed inevitable.

  • “Something is rotten in the kingdom of Israeli intelligence,” Mekelberg, associate fellow at the British think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.

  • “The pressure on Haliva was immense” – not just for the October 7 failures, but also for intelligence on what would have been the Iranian response to a suspected Israeli attack on its consular building in Damascus, which pushed the region to the brink of war.
  • “They left the country and the region on edge – it seems that no one warned against the possibility of more than 300 missiles, including ballistic, against Israel,” Mekelberg added.

While it is not clear whether the resignation will pave the way for more military officials to do the same, it will put pressure on the political leadership to accept responsibility, he said.

Admitting responsibility for October 7 has long been a thorny issue in the Israeli leadership as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet accepted blame.

Source: Al Jazeera

Major General Aharon Haliva, chief of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, on Monday announced his decision to leave the IDF due to his role in what many see as the greatest failure in the history of Zionism, which led to the murder of 1,200 and the kidnapping of 250.

Haliva is the first official to announce resignation. In light of a decision by IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and with the approval of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,

Haliva will terminate his role and leave the IDF, after a replacement has been found and appointed in an organized and professional fashion.

In a letter announcing his decision, Haliva emphasized his great appreciation for the work of those serving in the Military Intelligence Directorate during the course of the war.

Halevi thanked Haliva for his work over the course of his 38 years in the IDF, during which he contributed greatly, both as a soldier and as a commander, to the State of Israel’s security.

  • “On Saturday, October 7, Hamas carried out a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel,” Haliva wrote in his letter.
  • “The Intelligence Directorate under my watch did not stand up to the task with which we were entrusted.”

“Now, after more than half a year has passed, and with the start of the investigations, I request to end my role and leave the IDF, following the completion of a stage in the investigations and after a Military Intelligence Directorate chief is appointed to lead the excellent people in the Directorate during the coming years.”

Haliva also called for the creation of a governmental investigative committee, writing,

  • “I am convinced, for the sake of the State of Israel, for the sake of the nation of Israel and future generations, that it would appropriate to create a governmental investigative committee which will be able to investigate and clarify, in a thorough, deep, comprehensive, and profound fashion, all of the bodies and circumstances which led to these difficult events.”

Source: Arutz Sheva

‘A clear nudge or dig’ at PM Netanyahu to step down

Omar Ashour, from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israel’s military intelligence chief resigned because warnings of Hamas’s attack were “ignored”.

  • “Ten days after the attack he sent a memo to his soldiers saying, ‘I failed you.’ And he took responsibility then,” he told Al Jazeera.
  • “Politically, someone needs to take responsibility for what happened – and not necessarily the prime minister, who is his commander in the stratification of the armed forces. It might also be for strategic reasons. I don’t remember a time when Israel deployed 20 brigades in a small area such as Gaza.”

Ashour added Major-General Aharon Haliva’s resignation letter was “a clear nudge or dig” at Israel’s leader to follow suit and quit.

  • “But knowing Netanyahu it’s highly unlikely to shift his position. We’ll have to wait and see, there are always surprises in this war.”

Source: Al Jazeera