IDF intel chief during Oct. 7 appears to blame failure to prevent attack on Shin Bet

Aharon Haliva, who served as the head of the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate during the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, appears to blame the Shin Bet intelligence agency for not reacting more quickly to the onset of the invasion.

In a recording aired by Channel 12 news, Haliva repeats his contention that had he been woken up during the preceding night, he would have endorsed the existing assessments of other intelligence officers — meaning, the prevailing assessment that Hamas wasn’t actually planning a large-scale attack. He says anyone who says differently is a “liar.”

But he adds that the agency “that should have gotten one agent up that night was the Shin Bet. Where were you, Shin Bet, with all of your billions?”

Haliva, who announced he was stepping down in April 2024, was the first senior defense official to resign over his failures leading up to October 7.

In the recording, which will air in its entirety tomorrow evening, Haliva also laments the breakdown of discipline in the IDF and says it has become a “bordello.”

The network does not elaborate on the circumstances of the recording.