At conference 3 years after Oct. 7, IDF chief says military drawing lessons from disaster

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir convenes senior officers for a conference on the lessons learned from the October 7 onslaught, three years after Hamas’s massacre.

During the conference, Zamir presents a certificate of appreciation to Chief Warrant Officer “Vav,” a member of the signals intelligence Unit 8200, who warned before October 7, 2023, that Hamas had a clear plan in place to attack Israel. Senior intelligence officers dismissed her warnings.

At the conference, Zamir says that the army is concluding its investigations into October 7, “out of an understanding of the magnitude of the disaster, alongside the understanding that we must not become mired in them, but rather learn, draw lessons, implement them and move forward.”

“One of our greatest lessons from October 7 is the need to expand the security margin. We need to build the IDF’s force structure to meet challenges and threats across multiple arenas. The size of the IDF is our strategic depth,” he says.

Zamir also says that the military is building its strategy “with our reference scenario being readiness for a surprise war, including thwarting severe threats while they are taking shape.”

The conference at the Glilot Base in central Israel is attended by officers ranked brigadier general and above, from all branches, directorates, and commands of the military.

The IDF’s October 7 investigations “were summarized and the main lessons that emerged from them were presented,” the military says, adding that top officers “presented the processes for implementing the lessons and the mechanisms for monitoring their implementation.”

The military says the conference also constitutes the first stage in a series of investigations into the entire war, including probes into the recent war with Iran.

Those probes will be split into various subjects and investigated by different teams, similar to the October 7 investigations. In the coming months, meetings on the investigation process will be held by Zamir.

Lessons from the entire war are being divided into four main topics: systemic-strategic preparedness for surprise attacks, operational readiness based on updated reference scenarios, force buildup across the entire military, and intelligence.