Israel’s war on Gaza :Army-intel chief resigns over Hamas attack
Israel’s war on Gaza :
Army-intel chief resigns over Hamas attack
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Israeli military intelligence got it ‘spectacularly wrong’
Major-General Aharon Haliva says in his resignation letter the military’s intelligence division did not live up to the task it was entrusted with. He said we know now there was a major failure of intelligence that allowed Hamas to get away with this large-scale attack on Israeli territory.
Up to a year before, Israeli intelligence got its hands on a Hamas document that accurately laid out the plans for the October 7 attack. We know Israeli military spotters watching from the towers around Gaza in the weeks and months leading up to the infiltration had said they’d seen Hamas battalions preparing for some sort of assault.
All of this was ignored at the very highest levels of the military and the government because there was this belief that Hamas was not interested in launching an assault on Israel. That Hamas was more interested in managing Gaza.
They got that spectacularly wrong. The head of military intelligence has accepted responsibility for that.
Who’s next to take the blame for Hamas’s attack on Israel?
The surprise infiltration and attack on October 7, 2023, badly tarnished the reputation of the Israeli military and intelligence services, previously seen as virtually unbeatable.
The head of the armed forces, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, and the head of the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, both accepted responsibility in the aftermath of the attack, but have stayed on while the war in Gaza continues.
By contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far not accepted responsibility, although surveys indicate most Israelis blame him for failing to do enough to prevent or defend against the attack.
Rafah’s displaced Palestinians brace for ‘the next steps of the war’
“In the coming days, we will increase the military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages,” he said in a video statement. Israel estimates 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.
The army has said at least some of the captives are held in southern Rafah, with Israeli threatening a ground invasion on the area where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
Israeli military spokesman Rear-Admiral Daniel
Ireland calls Israel’s war in Gaza ‘disproportionate’ and ‘collective punishment’
“We believe that the response has been fully disproportionate and has also been, in our view, a breach of humanitarian law in terms of the destruction of Gaza and also in terms of the killing of civilians, innocent men, women and children,” Ireland’s foreign minister Michael Martin said, ahead of a EU Foreign Ministers Council meeting.
“The population of Gaza has been collectively punished because of the activities of Hamas, that’s not acceptable,” he added.
The minister said that Ireland and Spain will be calling for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, an agreement based on trade relations with Israel.
He also said the ministers would discuss a proposed Gaza peace plan, the recognition of a Palestinian state, and humanitarian aid issues.
Israeli military releases intelligence chief’s resignation letter
The resignation letter from Major-General Aharon Haliva has been provided to journalists.
“On Saturday, October 7th 2023, Hamas committed a deadly surprise attack against the state of Israel. The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,” he said.
“I carry that black day with me ever since. Day after day, night after night. I will forever carry with me the terrible pain of the war.”
Haliva is the first high-ranking official to step down for failing to prevent the attack.
Pressure on Israeli intelligence chief ‘was immense’
The resignation of Israel’s military intelligence chief was expected, and now political leaders are likely to feel increased pressure to assume the blame for Hamas’s October attack.
Political analyst Yossi Mekelberg noted members of the military leadership said they would resign once the war on Gaza was over. But as the conflict drags on with no end in sight, Aharon Haliva’s move to quit seemed inevitable.
“Something is rotten in the kingdom of Israeli intelligence,” Mekelberg, associate fellow at the British think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera. “The pressure on Haliva was immense” – not just for the October 7 failures, but also for intelligence on what would have been the Iranian response to a suspected Israeli attack on its consular building in Damascus, which pushed the region to the brink of war.
“They left the country and the region on edge – it seems that no one warned against the possibility of more than 300 missiles, including ballistic, against Israel,” Mekelberg added.
While it is not clear whether the resignation will pave the way for more military officials to do the same, it will put pressure on the political leadership to accept responsibility, he said.
Admitting responsibility for October 7 has long been a thorny issue in the Israeli leadership as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet accepted blame.
Israeli military releases intelligence chief’s resignation letter
The resignation letter from Major-General Aharon Haliva has been provided to journalists.
“On Saturday, October 7th 2023, Hamas committed a deadly surprise attack against the state of Israel. The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,” he said.
“I carry that black day with me ever since. Day after day, night after night. I will forever carry with me the terrible pain of the war.”
Haliva is the first high-ranking official to step down for failing to prevent the attack.
More on Israeli military intelligence chief’s resignation
The army said in a statement Major-General Aharon Haliva asked to end his service “following his leadership responsibility” after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Haliva, as well as other military and security officials, were widely expected to resign in response to the glaring failures that led to the attack. But the timing of the resignations is unclear because Israel is still fighting Hamas in Gaza to the south and battling Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north. Tensions with Iran are also high following tit-for-tat attacks.
While Haliva and others have accepted blame for failing to stop the October attack, others have stopped short, most notably Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he would answer tough questions about his role but has not outright acknowledged any responsibility for allowing the attack to unfold.
Middle East wars fuel biggest spending in 10 years
Israel’s military spending—the second largest in the region after Saudi Arabia—grew by 24 percent to reach $27.5bn in 2023. The spending increase was mainly driven by its war on Gaza.
“The large increase in military spending in the Middle East in 2023 reflected the rapidly shifting situation in the region—from the warming of diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries in recent years to the outbreak of a major war in Gaza and fears of a region-wide conflict,” said Diego Lopes da Silva, a senior researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Estimated military expenditure in the Middle East increased by 9 percent to $200bn in 2023. World military expenditure rose for the ninth consecutive year to an all-time high of $2,443bn.
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