Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has announced that he plans to step down once the military completes its investigations into the October 7 Hamas attack.
He stated in a letter to troops, “At the end of the investigations, we will also make personal decisions and commanders will exercise responsibility, from me down. I have no intention of passing over personal decisions when the picture becomes clearer to us.”
Earlier in July, when asked about the possibility of his resignation, Halevi had said he would make a decision “when the tasks are completed.”
“I have expressed my responsibility on several occasions, and these words also have a practical meaning, it is very clear to me,” Halevi said at the time. “We do not leave tasks in the middle, when we complete the tasks, I will make my decisions.”
Halevi, who has served as the IDF chief of staff since the beginning of 2023, was in charge of the military during the Hamas assault on October 7. During the attack, nearly 3,000 Hamas militants crossed the Gaza border, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, many of whom were civilians. These acts included extreme violence and sexual assault.
The attack led to Israel’s ongoing military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, among other fronts, with Halevi overseeing military strategy and tactics.
In his communication on Friday, Halevi largely focused on defending his authority to make high-level appointments within the IDF, despite criticism from some quarters that he should not be in a position to make such decisions given the military’s failure regarding the October 7 assault.
“Appointing officers to positions is not a privilege, but a command and operational duty. The IDF cannot afford to freeze,” Halevi asserted.
In recent weeks, Defense Minister Israel Katz withheld approval for the promotion of two officers due to their potential involvement in the failures leading to the October 7 assault.
The Ministry of Defense issued a statement explaining that Katz had approved all appointments except for Col. Ephraim Avni, the Southern Command’s former head of operations, and Col. Almog Dadon, who led the combat engineering unit at the Southern Command.
Katz indicated that their promotions would be delayed until their involvement in the events of October 7 and their conduct during the war had been thoroughly reviewed.
This review will be conducted by internal IDF investigations, not by a state-appointed commission, which Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has opposed.
Following the October 7 attack, several members of the ruling coalition criticized promotions within the IDF, arguing that Halevi should not be making such decisions while the military investigates the failures that allowed the Hamas assault to occur. Some have also argued that no senior officers should be promoted until the investigation is concluded, as some generals may have been responsible for the missteps.
{Matzav.com}