Released surveillance soldiers hammer IDF chief for ignoring their warnings in lead-up to Oct. 7

Channel 12 publishes additional quotes from the meeting held earlier today between IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and the four female surveillance soldiers who were released from captivity last month.

The network says that the meeting at times was very tense with the soldiers repeatedly criticizing the IDF’s conduct in the lead-up to October 7.

“How can you say you knew nothing? How did you not prepare for this attack? How did this happen? We warned you all! We saw it with our own eyes. We did our job as we were required to and we warned, but you dismissed us,” one of the soldiers told Halevi, referring to the repeated alerts that surveillance soldiers issued regarding intensifying Hamas activity along the Gaza border that was dismissed by their male superiors.

Halevi responded that it was “unacceptable” that the soldiers were dismissed in the manner that they were. “We teach all our commanders to treat every soldier and every complaint very seriously. You performed commendably.”

“You abandoned us. Our friends at the base fought alone and no one came to save us,” one of the soldiers responded.

“While we were held in Gaza, there were times when we were saved at the last minute. We almost died as a result of the IDF bombings,” one of the soldiers said.