The head of Israel’s military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, announced his resignation on Monday, citing his failure to prevent the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
“We did not live up to our mission, I bear full responsibility for the failure,” Haliva said in a resignation letter. “The Intelligence Division did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. Throughout my duties, I knew that alongside authority comes heavy responsibility.”
He also called for the establishment of an investigative committee to “investigate and find out in a thorough, in-depth, comprehensive and precise manner all the factors and circumstances.”
Haliva is the first high-ranking Israeli military official to resign, which came after over six months of Israel’s relentless slaughter and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. According to an analysis from Haaretz, more Israeli officials are expected to resign after Haliva.
Haaretz also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not taking responsibility for allowing the Hamas attack to happen. “It is impossible to ignore the fact that there remains one person that even now refuses to accept any responsibility for the disaster under his watch and, to a large degree, due to his policies, namely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” the report said.
Netanyahu has come under criticism from Israeli media for his previous policy of helping prop up Hamas as part of a strategy to separate the Palestinians in Gaza from those in the West Bank to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. His government also ignored a mountain of intelligence and warning signs that indicated Hamas was planning something big.
