Katz holds up promotion of two IDF officers until after October 7 probe
Defense minister approves list of senior appointments made by army chief except for two senior commanders at Southern Command; new Ground Forces chief selected
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday said he would not approve the promotion of two officers from the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command until their roles in the failures of the October 7 onslaught were investigated.
On Friday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced a new round of senior appointments in the military, including 11 new brigadier generals and four new colonels, as well as six brigadier generals and 19 colonels who are moving to new positions at the same rank.
In a statement issued by the Defense Ministry, Katz said that he had approved the list of appointments apart from two officers from the Southern Command: Col. Ephraim Avni, who was head of operations at the Southern Command, and Col. Almog Dadon, the head of combat engineering at the Southern Command.
Katz said their promotion will be on hold until their “connection to the events of October 7 and their performance during the war is thoroughly examined.”
The defense minister was referring to internal IDF investigations of the onslaught, and not a state commission of inquiry, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed.
Avni was appointed as the next head of the Paratroopers Brigade, and Dadon was appointed to head the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit.
The ministry also said that as part of examining the issue, Katz intended to meet with the families of the surveillance soldiers from the Nahal Oz outpost, “to allow them to voice their position on the issue.”
The father of Cpl. Noa Marciano — a surveillance soldier killed by Hamas in Gaza at some point in November, after she was taken hostage from the Nahal Oz post on October 7 — came out against the promotion of Brig. Gen. Eliad Moatti, the commander of the Border Defense Corps, which oversees the Combat Intelligence Collection Array. Moatti was appointed to be the commander of the Tzeelim training base by the IDF chief on Friday. Katz did not say he was holding up Moatti’s appointment and implied that he had approved his promotion among the list of other officers.
Also among the new brigadier generals promoted by Halevi on Friday was a reservist officer who will be returning to the IDF to command the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200.
The IDF had sought to find a commander for the unit who was not involved in the failures relating to October 7. The officer chosen for the role previously served as the deputy commander of Unit 8200 and was released from the IDF two years ago.
Additionally, on Friday, Halevi appointed Brig. Gen. Nadav Lotan as the next commander of the IDF Ground Forces. The appointment was approved by Katz.
Lotan, who previously commanded the 162nd Division and Operations Directorate’s military doctrine, assessment, and training department, would be promoted to the rank of major general upon entering the role.
Lotan is replacing Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, who announced his resignation from the position due to personal reasons in September.
Promotions in the IDF since the October 7 onslaught have come under fire by some coalition members, who have argued that as Halevi had failed in his role, he should not be the one to appoint commanders.
