Report that officer was removed from IDF Oct. 7 probe due to politics draws backlash

A senior reserve officer was reportedly dismissed from an IDF investigative team probing the intelligence failures leading up to the October 7, 2023, attack due to political pressure from people close to Defense Minister Israel Katz.

The report draws harsh criticism from the political opposition.

According to Army Radio, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Roi Alkabetz was dismissed from the so-called Numa Commission investigating the lead-up to October 7 over his involvement in protests against the government’s judicial overhaul in 2023, including his membership in a group called Armored Corps Soldiers for Democracy.

Earlier this month, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir announced that he had appointed Maj. Gen. (res.) Roni Numa to investigate the military’s failed handling of intelligence reports received since 2018, which outlined Hamas’s intent to launch a wide-scale attack against Israel.

Responding to the report of Alkabetz’s dismissal from the panel Numa heads, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accuses the “anti-Zionist government” of carrying out a “destructive political witch hunt against Israeli officers and civilians.”

Alkabetz is “an Israeli fighter and patriot, his two sons fought in Gaza, no one has ever doubted his professionalism and abilities,” Lapid declares. “His dismissal from the investigative team just because he expressed a legitimate opinion as a citizen is yet another low point and yet another political contamination of the Israel Defense Forces.”

Yesterday after coalition lawmakers voted to advance a bill that would penalize senior officers in the security services for encouraging refusal to enlist in the IDF, calling for reservists to halt volunteering, or “slandering” the security services.