The Israeli army’s chief of employees, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, introduced on Tuesday that he would resign in early March, citing partly the military’s failure below his command to guard Israelis from the Hamas-led assaults on Oct. 7, 2023.
The heavy toll of the assaults — 1,200 killed in Israel and 250 others taken hostage to Gaza — had lengthy include an expectation in Israel that at the very least a few of the nation’s leaders would finally resign. Only some officers have accomplished so, and Common Halevi is the highest-ranking army chief to step down thus far.
“My accountability for the horrible failure accompanies me each day, each hour and can for the remainder of my life,” he stated in a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and Israel Katz, the Israeli protection minister, saying his resignation.
Mr. Netanyahu has rebuffed calls to resign or take full-throated accountability for the disastrous failure to predict and prevent Hamas’s attack. He has stated he must reply “tough questions” after the struggle.
Common Halevi introduced he would resign simply two days after Israel and Hamas started a 42-day truce, the primary section of a cease-fire and hostage launch deal. On Sunday, Hamas released three feminine hostages held in Gaza for the reason that 2023 assaults in trade for 90 Palestinians, largely girls and minors, jailed in Israel.
Citing the settlement with Hamas, Common Halevi stated the timing was “now ripe” for him to depart, since hostages had begun to return house. He additionally stated that the Israeli army had scored plenty of main achievements, permitting him to bow out with Israel’s “deterrence and may” restored.
However he additionally conceded that Israel’s struggle goals — which embrace Hamas’s destruction and the return of all of the remaining hostages — had “but to be achieved.” Within the wake of the cease-fire, Hamas forces have reasserted their management over a lot of Gaza, and many of the hostages nonetheless stay within the enclave.
Mr. Netanyahu by no means totally clicked with Common Halevi, stated Amos Harel, the army affairs commentator for Haaretz, an Israeli day by day. After the Hamas assaults, Mr. Netanyahu more and more tried to shift the blame for the catastrophe to the army chief, Mr. Harel stated.
With Common Halevi, who was appointed by the prime minister’s centrist opponents in 2022, out of the image, Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative allies now hope for the chance to nominate a army chief who extra intently aligns with them.
Arduous-line authorities figures like Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, have additionally criticized army leaders like Common Halevi for not launching an much more aggressive marketing campaign in Gaza. Their criticism stood diametrically against accusations by human rights teams that the Israeli army had dedicated struggle crimes.
In an announcement, Mr. Smotrich praised Common Halevi earlier than shortly noting that he had lengthy criticized the final for his “failure within the marketing campaign to remove Hamas’s civilian and governing powers.” He stated he hoped Common Halevi’s resignation would herald a extra hawkish mind-set among the many prime army brass.
“The approaching interval might be marked by a change within the senior army command as a part of the preparations to renew the struggle, and this time, God prepared, till full victory,” stated Mr. Smotrich, who opposed the cease-fire take care of Hamas.
Extra resignations are anticipated within the coming weeks and months. Aharon Haliva, the pinnacle of Israel’s army intelligence, resigned in 2024, as did the pinnacle of the Israeli army’s Gaza brigade. Shortly after Common Halevi’s announcement, one other basic — Yaron Finkelman, head of the army’s southern command — stated he, too, would resign, though he didn’t give a date.
Over the previous 15 months, Common Halevi, 57, who assumed the army’s prime put up in early 2023, has overseen Israeli forces by means of the struggle in Gaza, a floor invasion of Lebanon, army operations in Syria and strikes in Iran.
Israel has eradicated almost 20,000 Hamas operatives and decimated the chain of command within the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Common Halevi stated in a televised assertion on Tuesday night.
“The Center East has modified,” he stated. “The map of threats has reworked fully.”
The Israeli army will finalize a collection of inside inquiries into its failure on Oct. 7, 2023, earlier than his departure, Common Halevi stated. Mr. Katz, the protection minister, has ordered the army to hurry up the method, which has been delayed for a number of months.
However Common Halevi stated the army’s inquiries into its complicated failures have been inherently restricted. He urged that an unbiased investigation into the assaults was mandatory, which Mr. Netanyahu has thus far declined to convene.
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.
