Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, chief of the Israel Defense Forces’s Military Intelligence Directorate, announced he would step down over failures to stop the Hamas invasion failures on October 7.
On October 17, Haliva said he bore “full responsibility” for the IDF not warning “of the terror attack carried out by Hamas.”
Haliva is the first senior IDF officer to resign over the terrorist attack.
From The Times of Israel:
“Now, more than half a year later, alongside the launch of [internal] investigations, I am tendering my resignation,” Haliva wrote in a letter publicized Monday.—In his resignation letter addressed to Halevi (Hebrew link), Haliva wrote that “along with authority comes heavy responsibility.”“The Intelligence Directorate under my command did not fulfill its task. I have carried that black day with me ever since, every day, every night. I will forever bear the terrible pain of the war,” he said in the letter to the IDF chief of staff.Haliva said he supports the establishment of a commission of inquiry to “be able to investigate and find out in a thorough, in-depth, comprehensive and precise manner all the factors and circumstances that led to the grave events.”“Everything I did during my service in the IDF was for the sake of the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” he added.
A Channel 12 report revealed the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate held a discussion three months before October 7: One officer, only identified as Brig. Gen. Peh, said: “We have tried but have not succeeded; we cannot say how [Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya] Sinwar will act, and therefore commanders in the field should take the necessary precautions.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid used Haliva’s announcement to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down:
“‘Along with authority comes heavy responsibility.'” The retirement of the head of Amn is justified and honorable. It would have been appropriate for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the same.”
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