From the Liveblog of
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Asked about resigning, IDF chief says he will decide ‘once the tasks are completed’
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Asked if he plans to resign over the October 7 onslaught, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says he will make a decision once “the tasks are completed.”
“I have been serving in the IDF for almost 40 years. Not one moment in my service involved clinging to a chair. I am currently busy with the tasks: dismantling Hamas, returning the hostages, creating security for residents at the borders,” he says at a press conference.
“I have expressed my responsibility on several occasions, and these words also have a practical meaning, it is very clear to me,” Halevi says.
“We do not leave tasks in the middle, when we complete the tasks, I will make my decisions,” he adds.
Addressing the ongoing probes into the failures before, during and after October 7, Halevi says that there is no aspect of IDF activity that will not be subject to a deep investigation, including that “of the senior leadership of the IDF and of my own behavior.”
The military chief says that the investigations so far have revealed a number of failures as well as great bravery of IDF soldiers: “Every act of heroism that they did is their own, in every one of their mistakes, I have a part.”
