“Israel’s” Top Commanders Purged as Military Admits “Systemic Failure” on October 7

By Staff, Agencies

“Israel’s” military has removed several senior commanders and reprimanded others over what its chief of staff described as a sweeping and “systemic failure” to prevent Hamas’s October 7, 2023 operation.

The decision, announced Sunday, targets some of the highest-ranking figures involved in the intelligence, operations and southern command portfolios.

According to the military’s statement, a number of officers were formally notified that they will be released from reserve service and will no longer remain within the armed forces. Others received official reprimands, while one officer was told their service would be fully terminated. A separate officer chose to resign.

The dismissed figures include the former heads of the intelligence directorate, operations directorate, and southern command — commanders who had already stepped down from active posts but had continued to serve as reservists.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said the entity “failed in its primary mission on October 7” to protect “Israelis,” calling the events of that day a “severe, resounding, systemic failure” rooted in flawed decision-making both before and during the attack. He stressed that the lessons drawn from the incident “must serve as our compass for the future.”

According to the “Israeli” broadcaster KAN, Zamir’s decisions included ending the reserve service of several retired generals, among them former Military Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, former Southern Command chief Yaron Finkelman and former Operations Directorate chief Oded Basyuk.

These officers had already been removed from their command posts earlier, but the new measures fully terminate their reservist status.

Zamir also dismissed Gaza Division reserve commander Avi Rosenfeld, while the division’s intelligence officer was expelled from the army altogether, KAN added.

Other senior officers, including Air Force commander Tomer Bar, current Military Intelligence chief Shlomi Binder, and Navy commander David Saar Salama, received “leadership remarks”, but were not dismissed.

The broadcaster said that Haliva and former Unit 8200 commander Yossi Sariel did not attend Sunday’s hearings “due to scheduling reasons” and will face review at a later stage before their reserve service is formally terminated.

Meanwhile, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted mounting calls for an independent inquiry into how the entity’s defenses collapsed. On Saturday night, thousands of demonstrators, joined by opposition leaders, rallied in “Tel Aviv” to demand the creation of a formal commission of investigation.

Since October 7, the “Israeli” entity has waged a devastating war on Gaza, launched after Hamas and allied resistance groups carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in response to decades of occupation.

Although a ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10 obligates the entity to halt its assault and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza in exchange for the release of captives, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported Saturday that “Israel” has violated the agreement at least 497 times over 44 days. Those violations have martyred 342 Palestinian civilians and wounded 875 more, most of them children, women and the elderly.