Israeli military intel chief steps down over failure to predict Hamas attack
Jerusalem - The head of the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Aharon Haliva, has resigned over his failure to predict the attack by Hamas on October 7 , the Israeli media reported on Monday.
Haliva has decided to retire from the Israeli army due to his failure to predict the October 7 attack, Israeli Army Radio said in a statement.
In his resignation letter addressed to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Hertzl Halevi, Haliva reportedly stated: “With authority comes heavy responsibility. The intelligence division under my leadership did not meet its mission requirements.”
He added: “I bore that black day with courage. Since then, day and night, I will forever carry the pains of the terrible war,” the radio reported.
The Israeli military said on Monday that Chief of Staff Hertzl Halevi has accepted the resignation. “In collaboration with the chief of staff and with the approval of the minister of defence, Major General Aharon Haliva will conclude his service and retire from the IDF (army) after the appointment of his successor through a meticulous and professional selection process,” a military statement said.
This marks the first official resignation of a senior leader in
With authority comes heavy responsibility. The division under my leadership did not meet its mission requirements. I bore that black day with courage AHARON HALIVA
Israel, particularly within the military, amid the ongoing demands within Israeli society to hold military and political officials accountable for the failure to detect and respond to the surprise attack carried out by Hamas over six months ago.
Death toll in Gaza rises to 34,151
Meanwhile, at least 54 more Palestinians were killed and 104 others injured over the last 24 hours, as Israel continues its onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Monday.
“The Israeli occupation (forces) committed five massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, leaving 54 martyrs and 104 injured during the past 24 hours,” a ministry statement said.
“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Besides, at least four Palestinians were injured in an attack carried out by illegal Israeli settlers protected by the Israeli army on the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the ministry said on Sunday. Medical teams at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah ‘are dealing with three (moderate to serious) injuries from live ammunition to the .chest and one injury to the hand as a result of the aggression of the occupation forces and illegal settlers on the village of Burqa in Ramallah’, the ministry said.
Earlier in the day, an eyewitness told Anadolu that a number of illegal settlers attacked Burqa and set fire to a mobile sheep pen, prompting residents to confront them, but the Israeli army confronted the residents with tear gas bombs.
According to the eyewitness, the attack ‘resulted in the burning of a large sheep pen, the destruction of tons of fodder, the slaughter of a number of sheep and the burning of vehicles’.
He noted that there were Israeli army reinforcements inside the town and on its northwestern outskirts, adding that residents were prevented from reaching the fires to extinguish them.