Commander of 8200 “Israeli” Unit: We Have Failed

By Staff, Agencies

The commander of the 8200 Unit in the “Israeli” occupation army, Brigadier Yossi Shariel shed light on the entity’s failures that contributed to the October 7 operation.

Shariel confirmed that “In the army we did not treat wars that could occur suddenly as a real scenario, neither did we treat Hamas's military wing as an army, thus allowing it to be present on our borders just minutes away from settlements.”

“We believed we had double security in the form of obstacles and intelligence that would not only wake us up but also explain exactly what was happening. This goes back to culture and values problems," Shariel added.

He further expressed his grief, taking responsibility for the failures, saying, “On October 7, at 06:29, I did not fulfill the task as expected of me by my subordinates and commanders, as I expected of myself, and most painfully, as the people expected of me. When I was appointed the commander of Unit 8200, it was expected that such things would not happen, but they did,” and added in deep sorrow, “I admit I have failed. I understand that what happened cannot be changed, I bow my head and sincerely ask for forgiveness.”

The Brigadier went on saying, “All the commanders were aware that Hamas had activated communication networks throughout the strip and reactivated its emergency assets. However, it was not clear why they did so.”

“In fact, there were also soothing indicators, but if we had asked an ordinary person on the street – not a graduate of an intelligence officer course or a brigade commander course – whether, when these are the indicators, the tanks should be on standby mode and the drones should be in the air, what would they say?” he added.

Shariel further said, wondering, “And even if they thought at night that it was just a drill for Hamas, wouldn’t it be better to be prepared to face enemy drill along the border?” adding, “All of this requires sound judgment and interaction between intelligence and commanders, which has not been investigated yet.”