Outgoing IDF intel chief admits failure for not warning of Oct. 7, urges state probe

Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, in his last speech as head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, says he is responsible for not providing a warning ahead of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

He also hints that he expects other officers to also take responsibility for their failures.

“On that Saturday we did not fulfill the most important mission which we are tasked with, providing a warning for war,” he says.

“The responsibility for the failures of the Military Intelligence Directorate is on me,” Haliva says.

Haliva is quitting the IDF over his involvement in the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder is replacing him.

“The responsibility and setting a personal example is a core value of the IDF, and in leadership in general. Taking responsibility is not words, it must be actions. My decision to end my role and resign from the IDF is the norm in which I was educated… it is what is expected of those marching forward and those charging at the front,” he says.

Haliva also calls for establishing a state commission of inquiry into “all aspects that led to war, so that what happened to us will not happen ever again.”