Fri. Feb 14th, 2025

Who has resigned so far in Israel over October 7?

Southern Command chief Gen. Yaron Finkelman assesses the situation inside Gaza Photo: Israel Defense Forces

October 7, 2023 represented one of the biggest military and intelligence failures in Israel's history: thousands of Palestinian terrorists, led by Hamas, managed to breach the border fence and attacked communities near the Gaza Strip, killing some 1.200 people and kidnapping 251.

Since then, no political figure has claimed responsibility for 7 October, and all resignations have been in the military or intelligence ranks, the latest being Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff, the top military leader, who resigned.

1. General Aharon Haliva, the then head of Military Intelligence, was the first senior official to resign over the massacre. He did so on April 22.

As early as October 2023, Haliva, with 38 years of service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), took part of the blame for the slow response to the thousands of members of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas who that day took control of more than a dozen Israeli communities and reached 3% of the territory.

2. On June 9, Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, commander of the Gaza Division, resigned after 30 years of service in the Israel Defense Forces.

“I am in pain and burdened by the high price paid every day. The price paid by the citizens, the soldiers and the security forces, as well as the loss of many friends,” Rosenfeld wrote in his farewell letter.

3. The head of the southern district of the internal intelligence agency (Shabak), whose identity, like that of the rest of the agency's agents, is a secret, resigned on July 10.

In his farewell speech, the official stressed that he felt “a personal and moral obligation to ask forgiveness from all those whose loved ones were killed, whose children fell in combat, those who were taken hostage and returned, those who are still held captive by the enemy, and all those who were displaced in their country.”

4. Commander Yosi Sariel, in charge of the Israel Defense Forces' 8200 intelligence unit (the largest in the armed forces), resigned on September 12 over his responsibility for the October 7 attacks.

According to a report by Channel 12 News, the country's most popular network, 8200 was responsible for designing the alert system to warn of a possible invasion by Gazan terrorists in 2014.

Less than a month before the anniversary of the attacks, Sariel resigned in agreement “with the state of the war, with the processes of consolidating the service and building resilience in the unit, as well as after the completion of the preliminary investigation processes into what happened.”

5. Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff, submitted his resignation letter yesterday, Tuesday, and said he plans to leave office on March 6.

The military chief had already indicated that he planned to resign once the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip was over. In his letter, he argued that Israel now has an “advantage” on all its fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria [West Bank], Iran and Yemen), making it the best time to leave office.

6. Along with Halevi, the officer in charge of Israel's Southern Command (where the Gaza Strip is located), General Yaron Finkelman, also submitted his resignation.

Public responsibilities

The majority of society, including voters who support the current governing coalition, are in favour of establishing a public commission to investigate the 7 October incident.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has so far accepted no responsibility for 7 October, has refused to consider launching a public inquiry while the war is still going on, instead focusing on military investigations.

Last month, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered Halevi to submit all internal military investigations into the attacks by February 2025, and said he would not approve the appointment of new generals until then.

After 15 months of almost uninterrupted fighting, the first phase of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas came into effect on Sunday, providing for the release of 33 of those hostages (dead and alive) in exchange for more than 1.900 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists.

During this first phase, lasting six weeks, negotiations are also planned for a second phase of the truce, during which the release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza would be completed and the foundations would be laid for the end of the war.

Agencies contributed to this Aurora article

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