From the Liveblog of
Saturday, September 5, 2026
TV: Days after Oct. 7, Winter claimed 15,000 IDF soldiers would be killed in Gaza offensive
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Shortly after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Israel Defense Forces couldn’t effectively carry out a ground offensive in Gaza and as a result 15,000 soldiers would be killed and thousands abducted, according to an unsourced Channel 12 news report.
Four hundred and seventy-three IDF soldiers were killed in the Gaza ground offensive.
The network quotes an unnamed former military official accusing Winter of spreading demoralizing assessments of how the military would perform in the Gaza Strip, and therefore, the offensive was delayed.
Winter denies the report, which echoes the Haaretz daily’s reporting in December 2024 that cited security officials.
The Times of Israel Community.