‘I Failed In My Responsibility To Protect My People’ – Isreal’s Intelligence Chief Resigns

Six months into the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli army on Monday announced the resignation of Major-General Aharon Haliva.

Haliva after 38 years of active service is the first senior official to take the responsibility of failing at a war.

Recall that the Hamas offensive caught Israel and its security establishment off-guard on October 7, 2023, with a death toll of over 1,100 and a record of 240 persons in captivity.

In retaliation to the attack, the Gaza health officials had said Israel’s response led to the death of over 34,000 people.

However, Haliva said, the attack by Hamas was a failure in his “responsibility” as the military head of intelligence.

His resignation read, “The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the horrible pain of the war with me forever,” Haliva wrote in his resignation letter.

While the choice of Haliva’s predecessor is yet to be announced, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X, warned that it would launch a ground assault on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.

Netanyahu’s outburst is in response to reports that its top ally, the United States was considering sanctioning the military’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank from before the war.

He said, “At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF (army) is the height of absurdity and a moral low.”

Reiterating his warning, he vowed that the Israeli military would increase military pressure to “deliver additional and painful blows” to Hamas in the coming days, without elaborating further.