A high-ranking Israeli general announced on Monday his intention to resign from his post for his role in the intelligence failures that led to the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7.
Major General Aharon Haliva, who leads the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, will step down from the military once his replacement is found. Haliva is set to become the first senior IDF officer to step down solely due to the Hamas attack, the Times of Israel reported; another Israeli intelligence officer resigned earlier this month after he was diagnosed with cancer, though he was expected to step down over intelligence failures as well. Other officers could soon follow suit.
Major General Yehuda Fuchs, commander of the IDF Central Command, also announced on Monday he will quit once his three-year term ends in August. He was not directly involved in the October 7 intelligence failures.
In his resignation letter, Haliva said he had failed as chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate and took responsibility for the October 7 failures.
“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 wrote to IDF chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, who accepted his resignation.
In the days following October 7, Haliva made a similar statement but decided to postpone his departure until a later date due to the early stages of the war in Gaza.
Monday’s letter comes as the Israeli military continues its internal investigations into the catastrophic failures that preceded October 7. Late last year, the New York Times reported Israel knew of Hamas’s battle strategy for more than a year in advance of the invasion. Despite this knowledge, Israeli intelligence personnel concluded in their assessments that Hamas terrorists would not attack.
The Military Intelligence Probe is carrying out several inquiries, each divided into distinct time periods: a decade before the attack, the week prior to the assault, and the massacre on the day of. The probe findings are scheduled to be presented to military leadership in early June.
In addition to the ongoing probes, Haliva endorsed the creation 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,” he wrote.
“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. Haliva served 38 years in the Israeli military, according to an IDF statement.
In October, Hamas killed some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped another estimated 240 people. Israel recently said approximately 130 hostages remain in Gaza, and about 25 percent of those are believed to be dead.