IDF chief Halevi tells military to finish probes into Oct. 7 attack by January’s end
Katz said last week he’d freeze promotions of senior officers until investigations complete, gave Jan. 31 deadline; IDF says probes will be in-depth despite expedited timeline
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi instructed the military on Wednesday to “accelerate the timetables” for the conclusion of its investigations into the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, which started the ongoing multifront war more than a year ago.
The move came after Defense Minister Israel Katz told Halevi last week that he would freeze the promotions of senior officers in the IDF until he was presented with the conclusions on the investigations, issuing a January 31 deadline.
Promotions in the IDF have come under fire by some coalition members, who have argued that Halevi failed in his role on that day, and thus should not be the one to appoint commanders. Halevi has indicated he will resign following the probes’ completion.
While the government has refused to appoint a state commission of inquiry and has opposed any probes that could include looking at political failures surrounding the devastating surprise attack last year, its lead-up, and its aftermath, the army has conducted internal investigations to learn what went wrong.
The IDF said Wednesday that despite the sped-up timeline and the wartime context of the investigation, it was seeking to maintain “a quality, in-depth, and professional” investigation process, “as a duty to the bereaved families, the families of the hostages, and the public.”
Investigating the military’s failures “is our duty to the fallen and their families, to the families of the hostages, to the political echelon, and to the entire public. And this is a duty to ourselves, as the only possible way to improve and learn,” Halevi said Wednesday, during a pilots’ graduation ceremony.
The IDF’s investigations at the General Staff level include four main subjects:
- The development of the IDF’s perception of Gaza, with an emphasis on the border, starting in 2018;
- The IDF’s intelligence assessments of Hamas from 2018 until the outbreak of the war;
- The intelligence and decision-making process on the eve of October 7, as well as the days leading up to it;
- The command and control, formations, and orders given during battles between October 7 and 10, when troops restored control over all communities and army bases in southern Israel that had been invaded by Hamas.
Under those four main subjects are 18 sub-topics, according to the IDF.
The investigations have been carried out by units seen as having had a role in the failure to notice Hamas preparations or adequately prepare for the terror group’s October 7 onslaught.
In addition, the IDF is investigating 41 separate battles and major incidents that took place during the October 7 attack.
The military says the investigations will be presented to the public once they have been concluded and packaged together.
Speaking at the graduation event Wednesday, Halevi noted that “the IDF has been investigating itself since the day it was founded, but operational investigations do not replace or contradict external inspection bodies.” He added, “the IDF will cooperate with any external inspection mechanism that is decided upon,” presumably a reference to a state commission of inquiry.
On Friday, Halevi was presented with some of the initial findings of a probe into the functioning of the top IDF leadership on the night of October 6-7.
According to a report on Channel 12 news, the probe indicated that Halevi should have held a wider situational assessment that night, rather than narrower consultations, that would have better highlighted what was going on, and could have led to different, better decisions in the hours ahead of the Hamas invasion and massacre.
Nonetheless, according to the report, the probe says that there was no definitive information that Hamas was about to carry out an attack.
Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said Wednesday that the IAF had completed its investigation into its response to the attack.
“The IAF is not immune to mistakes. The ability to investigate and implement [learned lessons] is fundamental to victory in the tough fighting competition in the Middle East and beyond,” he said at the graduation ceremony. “We have completed the October 7 investigation with an independent team of reservists. It is a deep, thorough, and sharp investigation.”
The investigation will be presented to the public once all the IDF’s probes have been concluded and approved by Halevi.
Discrepancies are likely to arise between the findings of different probes, which could add several more weeks to the timeline, as the conclusions are reconciled.
Some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
The attack sparked the ongoing war in the enclave, which has also seen fighting on several other fronts as well, against Iran — which backs Hamas — and its various other proxy groups in the region.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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