catastrophic intelligence and operational failures
outgoing IDF chief Herzi Halevi: I regarded Gaza as least worrying border; I know victims asked ‘Where’s the IDF?’
In leaked remarks to local council chiefs while presenting army’s findings, Halevi also notes the first troops only reached hard-hit Kibbutz Nir Oz after last terrorists had gone
The outgoing head of the Israel Defense Forces and the commander of the Southern Command went in-depth, in detailing the series of catastrophic intelligence and operational failures that enabled Hamas’s October 7, 2023 onslaught while presenting the army’s extensive findings last week to southern local council chiefs, according to recordings leaked to the media and aired Sunday evening
Fatal Complacency
Halevi acknowledged that he and the IDF had thought, 1. Hamas was entirely incapable of carrying out the kind of broad surprise attack it ended up mounting, 2. murdering some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages 3. and that he had been less concerned by the threat from Gaza than the dangers on every other Israeli border
Halevi said the IDF’s conception “collapsed” on October 7 and that he knew that the last words of many Israelis murdered that day were “Where is the IDF?”
Halevi, who was set to step down later this week having taken personal responsibility for the failures, stressed at the start of the broadcast recording that he, as head of the IDF and the IDF as a whole, had failed to protect the people of Israel
Quote
“I know lots of people were murdered and their last words were ‘Where is the IDF?’ I know that It’s very hard for us [to know that]”
