The Israeli military has acknowledged its “full failure” to forestall the October 7 assault by Hamas, admitting that it had, for years, underestimated the Palestinian group’s capabilities.
The abstract of an Israeli military investigation, revealed on Thursday, mentioned it “failed in its mission to guard Israeli civilians”.
“October 7 was an entire failure, the IDF (army) failed in fulfilling its mission to guard Israeli civilians,” a senior Israeli military official informed reporters following the publication of the investigation. “Too many civilians died that day asking themselves of their hearts or out loud, the place was the IDF?” mentioned the official, talking on situation of anonymity.
The probe mentioned the notion that Hamas was not curious about a full-scale battle and that Israel would have ample warning in case of an assault went unchallenged for years, leading to an absence of preparedness and talent to reply to an assault.
It additionally discovered that Israel had centered its intelligence and army efforts on different fronts, corresponding to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and relied too closely “on intelligence, obstacles, and defensive measures alone”, and was thus caught abruptly.
For the reason that lethal assault that killed an estimated 1,139 folks in Israel and triggered the struggle on Gaza that has killed greater than 48,000 Palestinians, questions have been requested of the Netanyahu administration and the military for its dealing with of the assault.
Throughout the assault, greater than 200 folks had been additionally taken captive.
There have been widespread requires Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. The incident had already resulted within the resignation of Israel’s spy chief Aharon Haliva in 2024. In January, Israel’s prime normal Herzi Halevi additionally resigned, citing “horrible” safety and intelligence “failures” that led to the attack.
The military’s southern command Yaron Finkelman additionally resigned.
“I embrace it, the duty is mine, I used to be the commander of the military on October seventh, I bear my very own duty, and I additionally bear the complete duty for all of you. And I acknowledge in each subordinate of mine who made a mistake, as a part of my very own [mistake],” Halevi had mentioned.
The probe concluded that the Hamas attack occurred in three waves and, at its peak, noticed greater than 5,000 fighters and civilians enter Israel.
The report mentioned within the first wave, greater than 1,000 Nukhba fighters, the elite drive of Hamas, “infiltrated” Israel below the duvet of heavy hearth. They had been mentioned to be answerable for knocking out the Israeli army’s communications system and its command-and-control centres, creating chaos as the military struggled to regain management.
The second wave, in keeping with the probe, concerned some 2,000 fighters whereas the third noticed tons of extra becoming a member of the incursion, together with a number of thousand civilians.
Hamas has maintained that only some hundred of its fighters carried out the assault.
An earlier investigation performed by Israeli media outlet Haaretz discovered that Israel’s personal army might have fired upon and killed Israeli civilians through the Hamas assault, in a bid to forestall Palestinian fighters from taking captives.
Responding to the discharge of the inquiry, opposition chief Yair Lapid renewed his name for Netanyahu to type an official fee to analyze the assault.
“The military is exhibiting braveness and integrity, and is investigating itself with none try and cowl up or evade its duty,” Lapid wrote on X. “It’s time for the cowardly, failed group known as the Israeli authorities to do the identical,” he added.
