Report: IAF chief says Air Force was ‘not effective enough’ on October 7

Channel 12 news quotes Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar as saying that the IAF was “not effective enough” on the morning of the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

“Why did we fail? The morning of October 7 began for us with a complete surprise,” Bar is cited as saying during an internal presentation of the IAF’s probe into the failures on October 7.

“We pounced, fought, assisted, rescued, gave everything. But unfortunately, we were not effective enough that day,” he says according to the network.

Channel 12 also publishes the ostensible findings of the IAF’s probe.

The network says the probe found that the IAF was not sufficiently effective and its preparations were inadequate.

The terror onslaught began at 6:30 a.m. By 7:08 a.m., Bar had scrambled all staff who were on furlough, according to the investigation cited by Channel 12

At 9:30 a.m., the IAF declared the entire border area as a “killing zone,” even at the price of harming hostages, the network says.

The IDF in response to the report says: “The Israeli Air Force’s investigation is being examined as part of the investigation into October 7, and will be presented to the public when it is concluded.” It says that the “main insights were presented to the senior command in the IAF, which serves as a base for the General Staff investigation, which has not yet been concluded.”