IDF chief honors officer whose Hamas invasion warnings were ignored by her superiors

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir convened senior officers on Sunday for a conference on the lessons learned from the October 7 attack, three years on.

During the conference, Zamir presented a certificate of appreciation to Chief Warrant Officer “Vav,” a member of the signals intelligence Unit 8200 — identified only by her first initial in Hebrew — who warned before October 7, 2023, that Hamas had a clear plan in place to attack Israel. Senior intelligence officers had dismissed and ignored her warnings.

“Vav” warned in an email sent to a number of IDF officers in the days leading up to the deadly Hamas terror assault that “the sword is coming,” and urged them to “warn the people” while there was still time.

The urgent warning followed the issuance of a dossier put together by Unit 8200 on September 19 — less than three weeks before October 7 — that warned Hamas was training for a large-scale invasion of Israel.

In an attempt to convey the severity of the situation, “Vav” ended her email by paraphrasing a line from Ezekiel 33:6, writing “This email constitutes a blowing of the ‘shofar,’ because the sword is coming — the hour is ripe to warn the nation.”

The verse is a well-known one for those working in intelligence, as it says that “if the watchman sees the sword is coming” and fails to sound the ram-horn bugle, he will pay with blood for the bloodshed he has failed to avert.

The email was dismissed by the Gaza Division’s top intelligence officers, and the so-called Jericho Wall plan was actualized on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst through the Gaza border and carried out a deadly assault in southern Israel, slaughtering some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.

At Sunday’s conference, Zamir said that the army was concluding its investigations into October 7, “out of an understanding of the magnitude of the disaster, alongside the understanding that we must not become mired in them, but rather learn, draw lessons, implement them, and move forward.”

“One of our greatest lessons from October 7 is the need to expand the security margin. We need to build the IDF’s force structure to meet challenges and threats across multiple arenas. The size of the IDF is our strategic depth,” he said, according to a readout of his remarks published by the IDF.

Zamir also said that the military was building its strategy “with our reference scenario being readiness for a surprise war, including thwarting severe threats while they are taking shape.”

The conference at the Glilot Base in central Israel was attended by officers ranked brigadier general and above, from all branches, directorates, and commands of the military.

The IDF’s October 7 investigations “were summarized and the main lessons that emerged from them were presented,” the military said, adding that top officers “presented the processes for implementing the lessons and the mechanisms for monitoring their implementation.”

Zamir said it was “important” to have invited “Vav” to the conference, and that she is a “clear example of intellectual courage and professionalism.”

“In our organizational culture, we must not allow a culture of pleasing, intellectual tyranny, or suppression of critical thinking. As commanders, we must ensure that we demand freedom of expression from our people as an essential component of our operational culture and our frameworks,” he said.

The military said that the conference also constituted the first stage in a series of investigations into the entire war, including probes into the recent war with Iran.

Those probes will be split into various subjects and investigated by different teams, similar to the October 7 investigations. In the coming months, meetings on the investigation process will be held by Zamir, according to the military.

Lessons from the entire war are being divided into four main topics: systemic-strategic preparedness, operational readiness, force buildup, and intelligence.

Under the topic of systemic-strategic preparedness, the military said it would draw lessons to improve its readiness and alertness for a surprise attack on several fronts simultaneously, “even when deterrence and warnings fail,” based on an enemy’s capabilities rather than its intentions, alongside taking “proactive offensive action” to prevent threats from taking root.

The same topic also seeks to draw lessons to strengthen future ground offensives, with an emphasis on boosting capabilities for building a “situational picture” during extreme events and under uncertainty.

Under the topic of operational readiness, the lessons aim to assist the IDF in updating its reference scenarios, defense plans, readiness levels, and use of standby forces “in accordance with changes in the enemy.” The military said that its reference scenarios would be updated every six months, with strict oversight.

The force build-up lessons seek to strengthen the “independence and lethality” of the military’s regional brigades and divisions, and separately build defenses for the issue of low-altitude drones.

Under the topic of intelligence, the military seeks to focus the Military Intelligence Directorate on “clarifying reality and developing an intelligence picture” and defining “issuing warnings” as its core mission.