IDF stridently denies report it nixed plan to save hostages at Shifa shortly after Oct. 7

The Israel Defense Forces is stridently pushing back against a report that Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi put the kibosh on plans to raid Gaza City’s Shifa hospital to rescue a group of hostages in the days after the October 7 massacre, denouncing its “false and baseless claims.”

The Israel Hayom report, based on an upcoming memoir by former officer Ido Nordin, alleges that a plan was formed to carry out a massive multidimensional attack on Hamas’s leadership, believed to be under the hospital, and to rescue hostages being held there. However, Halevi rejected the idea.

“This was an operational idea without operational plans or intelligence to carry it out, nor was there information on hostages in the hospital,” the IDF says in response. “If there was intel like that, the plan would have been advanced to be carried out. The plan as presented would have killed hostages and harmed our security and our forces.”

The statement also rejects a claim that Halevi kept the information from the political leadership, and says he has spent hundreds of hours looking into various plans to rescue hostages.

“The chief of staff has approved rescue operations that take reasonable risks, and when the operational conditions allow it,” the statement reads.