IDF chief summoning top military commanders ahead of sanctions over Oct. 7 failures

By Emanuel Fabian

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and ToI Staff 23 November 2025, 11:47 am

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IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir at the graduation of an IDF officers' course, October 30, 2025. (Noam Revkin Fenton/FLASH90)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has summoned senior officers who had roles in the October 7, 2023, failures, with the intention of issuing sanctions against the commanders, according to the military.

Zamir said earlier this month that he would make “personal decisions” regarding senior officers based on the findings of a probe conducted by an external panel of experts, including potential dismissal from the military.

Zamir is set to conclude the meetings by this evening, and the IDF will then issue a statement with the details.

At this stage, the IDF is not detailing the names of the officers and the sanctions.

The IDF’s initial October 7 investigations were led by former chief of staff Herzi Halevi.

In one of his first decisions upon entering the role in March, Zamir appointed the external panel to further examine those probes.

That panel found that most of investigations were inadequate, and some were unacceptable.

Some of the officers have already retired while others are still in the military. The IDF says that Zamir’s decisions were made after a long period of consideration.

The military says that the “personal decisions” are a necessary step in the IDF’s growth process, in order to strengthen public trust in the army, and between commanders and subordinates.

In addition to the meetings between Zamir and the senior officers, similar discussions are also being held at lower ranks, according to the IDF.

The Ynet site, which first reported the move, says that among those to be summoned are the current chief of the Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, who on October 7 headed the Operations Division. Binder’s appointment to the intel chief role was considered controversial and was met with protests from some lawmakers and the families of some fallen soldiers.

It says that Zamir also summoned former head of the IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, who resigned from the position earlier this year.