IDF chief tells comptroller his planned Oct. 7 probe will divert army’s attention from war

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi writes a letter to the state comptroller asking him to delay a planned investigation into the multiple failures that occurred before, during and after the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre.

“The IDF is in the midst of an unprecedented war. The audit will divert the attention of the commanders from the fighting, will damage the operational investigation ability, and will not allow drawing necessary lessons to achieve the goals of the war,” says Halevi to Matanyahu Englman.

“There is no precedent for holding such a review during the war,” the IDF chief adds.

In December, Englman said his office would “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation.

Among the issues to be reviewed by the comptroller’s office are the conduct of the government’s security cabinet; the conduct of policymakers and the military on October 7 itself; intelligence preparedness before October 7; the defense posture on the Gaza border before the Hamas invasion; the preparedness of the civilian security squads in the Gaza border region before the war; the funding of Hamas; and the lack of equipment for IDF soldiers, he said at the time.