Passed away: IDF Military Intelligence Chief Aharon Hariba speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv in 2022 (Photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
A major purge of senior Israeli military and intelligence officials is underway for failing to stop the devastating Hamas attack on October 7th.
On Monday, the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intelligence division, Major General Aharon Hariba, resigned. He is the first senior Israeli official to resign over his failure to stop Hamas militants from carrying out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history, killing some 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 250 hostages.
But he won’t be the last. As military investigators deepen their internal investigation into the events surrounding the October 7 attack, many others in Israel Defense Forces Intelligence and Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service are leaving their jobs in disgrace. It is expected, a knowledgeable Israeli official told SpyTalk.
“The Intelligence Directorate under my command was unable to carry out the mission entrusted to us,” Hariba wrote in his anguished resignation letter. “I’ve carried that dark day with me every day and night ever since. I’ll carry the terrible pain of war with me forever.”
Hariba’s resignation is expected to lead to an avalanche of departures from the top ranks of Israel’s military and intelligence services, these sources said. Others expected to resign in the coming months include Defense Minister Job Gallant. Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzl Halevi, Supreme Commander of the Israel Defense Forces; and Shin Bet chief Ronen Barr. All have publicly accepted responsibility for the October 7 failure. But it continues to serve despite Israel’s calls for war with Hamas, now in its sixth month.
“We don’t know how quickly it will happen, but there will be more resignations,” Yossi Kuszyk, former prime minister Ehud Barak’s chief of staff, said in a telephone interview.
Amos Harel, military correspondent for the daily newspaper Haaretz, said other people involved in the October 7 fiasco are ready to leave their jobs. These include several senior Shin Bet officials and current and former commanders of the IDF Southern Command.Headquarters, Director of Operations of the Israel Defense Forces, Commander of the Gaza Strip
Shin Bet boss Ronen Barr, seen here coming out of his home in October 2021, is expected to resign soon, sources have told Spy Talk. (Flash90 photo)
But lawyers for these officials are calling for them to remain in office until the current ruling right-wing coalition leaves power and a new, more moderate government takes office, according to former government officials.
“The problem is that if these people resign now, Mr. Bibi will replace them with radical right-wing butt kissers,” a former official told Spy Talk, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname. Told. The former official requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters.
Israel’s next election is in 2026, but many expect Netanyahu’s government to fall and a new vote to be held by then.
Purging the eavesdropping unit
Earlier this month, the commander of Israel’s vaunted Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces’ powerful electronic cyber surveillance agency comparable to the U.S. National Security Agency, was forced to resign.
Resignation of Brigadier General. Gen. Yossi Sariel, whose identity was a closely guarded secret, is the author of a book on military uses of artificial intelligence that Sariel published on Amazon in 2021, according to an April 5 report in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. It was revealed that it was published using only the initials of . YS” had left a digital trail leading to his private Google account created in his name. The newspaper said the trail also revealed Sariel’s “unique ID and links to the account’s map and calendar profiles.”
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed that Sariel’s true identity had been exposed and said the book was a “mistake” in revealing the spy chief’s identity. However, even before this security lapse, Troop 8200 under Sariel was under fire for failing to foresee and prevent the October 7 attack on Hamas.
Also on Monday, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, commander of Israel’s Central Command, which includes the occupied West Bank, informed his superiors that he would step down when his three-year term expires in August. According to Israeli news reports, Mr. Fox told his aides that he had been part of the failure of the IDF Chiefs of Staff on October 7 and that he had an obligation to resign honorably.
Fox’s command is under scrutiny by Israeli Defense Force investigators looking into the events surrounding the Hamas attack. These included several instances in which IDF soldiers under Fox’s command stood by or participated in violent attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
Human rights abuses by Israeli forces in the West Bank and other parts of the Gaza Strip have resulted in approximately 34,000 Palestinians being killed in Israel’s war against Hamas, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The deaths are reported in the State Department’s annual human rights report. , released on Monday.
In an unprecedented move, Axios reported last week that the Biden administration is expected to impose sanctions on a special unit of the Israel Defense Forces for human rights abuses in the West Bank. The sanctions are based on a 1997 law that prohibits U.S. diplomatic and military assistance to foreign military, security, and police forces that commit human rights abuses, and prohibit them from receiving any type of U.S. military aid or training. Become something.
The unit, called Netza Yehuda, is a battalion made up of ultra-Orthodox men and radical right-wing settlers that all other IDF combat units have deemed unacceptable.
The State Department launched an investigation into Netza Yehuda in 2022 after Netza Yehuda soldiers were implicated in numerous incidents of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. In one incident, Netza Yehuda soldiers arrested Omar Assad, an 80-year-old Palestinian American, at a checkpoint near a village after he refused to be searched. In response, the soldiers handcuffed and gagged him and left him on the ground in the cold. He was found dead several hours later.
A few months ago, a State Department team investigating allegations of human rights abuses against foreigners under a 1997 law asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to impose sanctions on several units of the Israeli military and police operating in the West Bank. advised to give it. Asked about the team’s recommendations at a news conference in Italy last Friday, Blinken said he had reached decisions based on the team’s investigation and that they would be made public “in the coming days.”
