IDF intelligence chief says he ‘bears full responsibility’ for failure to prevent attack

The head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate says he bears responsibility for the intelligence failures that led to Hamas carrying out its surprise onslaught on October 7.

“In all my visits to Military Intelligence Directorate units in the last 11 days, I sat down and stressed that the beginning of the war was an intelligence failure,” Maj. Gen Aharon Haliva says in a missive.

“The Military Intelligence Directorate, under my command, failed to warn of the terror attack carried out by Hamas,” Haliva says. “We failed in our most important mission, and as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, I bear full responsibility for the failure.”

“What needs to be investigated, we will investigate, in the deepest and most comprehensive way, and draw the conclusions,” he says. “But now, there is only one task, to fight back and to win.”

Haliva is the latest defense official to say they bear responsibility for the deadly invasion carried out by Hamas, after the head of the Shin Bet security agency and IDF chief of staff made similar remarks in recent days.