IDF completes all October 7 probes, will start presenting them next week
Learning from aftermath of Be’eri report, military plans to offer context to individual battles by first publishing its broader investigations of intel assessments, top brass’s decisions
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
After lengthy delays, the Israeli military announced on Sunday that it had completed its investigations into its failures during the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, and would begin to present its findings next week.
The probes are aimed at drawing operational conclusions for the Israel Defenese Forces and will not look into the policies of the political leadership, avoiding a fight with government leaders who have insisted that investigations must wait until after the end of the war against Hamas.
The investigations — by units seen as having had a role in the failure to notice Hamas preparations or adequately ready themselves for the terror group’s onslaught — were carried out concurrently amid the war. Initial investigations began in November 2023, with outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi ordering all units to begin them in March.
The military said that there would be no personal conclusions for officers at this stage. Such decisions regarding individual officers may be made by Halevi’s successor, incoming IDF chief of staff Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, at a later date.
Some of the probes have been ready for months, but the IDF decided that all of them should be concluded and packaged together before being presented to the public.
Thousands of hours were spent by officers on the investigations — collecting material, conducting interviews, and compiling the information. Halevi alone spent over 230 hours going over the investigations, military sources said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz in December set a January 31 deadline for Halevi to hand over the probes. The military has since presented many of the investigations to Katz over the past few weeks, and he will see all of them before the public does, according to the IDF.
The probes are focused on a timeframe from the March 2018 Hamas-led Gaza border riots until October 10, 2023, the point when Israeli troops reestablished control of southern Israel following the attacks.
Some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists from the Gaza Strip burst into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, carrying out a murderous rampage of unprecedented intensity and breadth. The IDF struggled to mount a response, with bases closest to the border overrun and the chain of command seemingly broken amid the chaos.
The attack claimed the lives of some 1,200 people in Israel, with another 251 people kidnapped and much of the area devastated. Most victims were civilians.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign aimed at destroying Hamas and winning the freedom of hostages, 70 of whom remain in captivity, along with three hostages from before the war.
The investigations are not related to a planned but canceled external probe of the army’s conduct in the lead-up to October 7. The plans for an independent review of the IDF were met with protests from government leaders, who feared they could be criticized.
Meanwhile, the government has refused to set up a state commission of inquiry and has opposed any probes that could examine the political failures surrounding the devastating surprise attack, its lead-up, and its aftermath.
Initially, the IDF planned to present its internal investigations by the end of August 2024, as each probe was completed. However, due to the war’s focus shifting to Lebanon, and attacks and counterstrikes in Yemen and Iran, the IDF delayed completing many of the investigations.
Military sources said 25 percent of Halevi’s schedule in January, amid the current ongoing ceasefire with Hamas, was dedicated to concluding the investigations.
Only one investigation has so far been officially published by the army: the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7 onslaught. Senior IDF officials have acknowledged that it was a mistake to present that probe, which focused on tactical errors by troops, without the context of the wider investigations looking into the military’s intelligence and decision-making by top officers.
The IDF’s investigations at the General Staff level, the top command of the military, 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 subtopics, according to the IDF.
There are several investigations at the General Staff level, including those carried out by the Israeli Air Force, Israeli Navy, Military Intelligence Directorate, Operations Directorate, Home Front Command, Southern Command, and other bodies. Some will look back further than 2018.
In addition, the IDF investigated 41 separate battles and major incidents that took place during the October 7 attack.
The IDF will begin presenting the investigations on February 26, with hopes of completing the process by the time Halevi steps down on March 5, starting with the four main topics and then moving down to the individual battles.
The military said it would not be able to present all 40 remaining battle probes during that time, but that the largest and most significant incidents would be shown first.
The 40 battle probes will be first presented to members of the relevant communities and families of those who were killed, before the public.
According to a tentative timeline seen by The Times of Israel, the IDF will release the General Staff investigations on February 26.
Over the following week, the military will present its investigations into the battles at Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz, and Netiv Ha’asara to members of the respective communities and then the public.
The battle at the Nahal Oz army post and the massacre at the Nova music festival near Re’im are expected to be presented by the IDF in early March. The remaining battles will be presented by the end of March, according to the tentative timeline.
The IDF has also set up a website where the findings will be publicly available after they are presented. Currently, only the Be’eri probe is available on the site.
