Breaking silence, ex-IDF chief Halevi says ‘absolutely no internal betrayal’ caused Oct. 7

Former IDF chief Herzi Halevi, in his first public remarks since resigning from the military more than a year and a half ago over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, said the onslaught “was a failure that could have been prevented, but there was absolutely no internal betrayal.”

“The political echelon and political leadership need to say this loudly and clearly,” Halevi said at a conference of the pro-Israel Shurat Hadin legal group in New York on Sunday. He also gave a window into IDF deliberations following the attack, and said the failures surrounding it must be investigated.

Halevi’s acknowledgement of his own missteps surrounding the invasion and massacre, which occurred on his watch, is not new. In a letter ahead of his resignation in March 2025, he wrote that “under my command, the IDF failed in its mission to protect Israel’s citizens.”

But his statement rejecting claims of treachery from within comes as conspiracy theories about the attack have gained steam.

The claim to the effect that some in the defense establishment knew of Hamas’s plans, and still allowed the attack to go forward, has been peddled both by the Israeli far right, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair, and by many in the global anti-Israel movement.

Prior to last week’s election, the prime minister’s wife, Sara, insinuated that opposition politician Yair Golan knew of the attack in advance. In fact, Golan learned of it after it began and rushed to the scene of the onslaught to save victims.

Netanyahu himself has repeatedly claimed that security brass declined to wake him up despite signs the attack was coming, but has also publicly rejected allegations of betrayal.

Halevi, who took the helm of the IDF in 2023, said at Sunday’s conference that Israeli collaboration with the Hamas attack would have had to be a major undertaking, and noted that no one has been accused of participating in such an effort.

“Even on a practical level, helping Hamas would require not just one person collaborating, but a very broad network. After three years, not even one such person has been found,” he said.

Halevi also pushed back on the sitting government’s opposition to investigating the attack with a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority.

“Israel must complete an inquiry and ask difficult questions,” he said. “We must look failure in the eye to be able to make corrections.”

‘Our bombs killed hostages. We did not know they were there’

Halevi also reflected on serving as IDF chief for nearly a year and a half after the onslaught. He said the military’s conduct helped bring about the release of some of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, but added that some captives were killed by IDF fire.

“Without strong military pressure inside Gaza, we would not have been able to bring back the hostages,” he said, acknowledging that “our bombs killed hostages. We did not know they were there.”

He said that “it took us a long time to convince the political echelon” to carry out a ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 attack. The ground operation against Hamas began in late October, nearly three weeks after the terror group’s invasion.

Halevi also said that on the morning of October 7, during the Hamas attack, Israel sent Lebanese terror group Hezbollah a message that “we are keeping a close eye on you. If you make even the slightest move, a very heavy hammer will come down on Lebanon.”

Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, the day after the attack, sparking a conflict that continued until late 2024 and has flared up intermittently in the years since.

While Sunday’s remarks were Halevi’s first public comments on the war, multiple recordings of his talks with relatives of hostages have been released since he resigned.

In one recording, aired on Channel 12 in May 2025, discussing the IDF’s internal probes into October 7, Halevi said, “There are places where we know that we could have been better, but I want you to know: We aren’t trying to deceive you or whitewash things; we are saying the painful truth.”

In another, aired on the same network later that year, he said Israel’s defense establishment had been “lulled to sleep” by Hamas for years.