The Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Eyal Zamir, announced the dismissal of several senior officers and imposed disciplinary sanctions on others following the failure to prevent the October 7, 2023 attack carried out by Hamas. Among the officers covered by the decision, issued by the army on Sunday evening, were the head of Military Intelligence Aharon Haliva, the commander of the Southern Command Yaron Finkelman, and the head of the Operations Directorate Udi Basyeuk. Haliva was the first officer to resign in 2024, taking responsibility for the failure. Finkelman also resigned for the same reason, while Basyeuk retired after the war Israel waged against Iran in June of this year, which lasted 12 days. However, Zamir's decision served to confirm that disciplinary measures had been taken against them and to formally end their service in the army. According to the army's statement, the three commanders bear personal responsibility for the military organization's failure to anticipate and respond to the attack. These measures by the Chief of the General Staff follow the publication of a report by an expert commission he tasked with investigating, which concluded the internal army investigation phase into the failures of October 7, 2023. The report concluded that there was a "systemic and deep organizational failure" within the military, primarily pointing to a "failure in vision and assessment" manifested in "the gap between the strategic and operational reality and the military's perception of the reality related to the Gaza Strip and Hamas." The report also revealed an "intelligence failure" characterized by the "inability to issue a warning" despite the army possessing "exceptional and quality information". In addition to the three dismissed officers, the army also announced disciplinary sanctions against Air Force Commander Tomer Bar and Navy Commander David Sa'ar. The sanctions also affected four generals and four other senior officers.
