IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Tuesday, sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that he would resign on March 6 after two years and two months in office, about 10 months earlier than the standard three-year term.
Halevi said he is resigning in keeping with his promise since October 2023 that he would take responsibility for the October 7, 2023 failure in which Hamas invaded southern Israel.
Despite that failure, Halevi noted his and the IDF’s recent successes, including against Hezbollah in Lebanon, against the Assad regime in Syria, against Iran, and in forcing Hamas into a hostage exchange deal that started this week.
In addition, Halevi said that the IDF, during his tenure, managed to hold down terror in the West Bank to low enough levels, which allowed the military to focus most of its efforts on the two major fronts with Hamas and Hezbollah.
The IDF chief recognized that the country’s war aims are still open, including eliminating Hamas’s political control of Gaza and returning the remaining 94 hostages as part of restoring Israeli deterrence visa against its adversaries.
He said that he would spend the next six weeks making sure to issue the IDF’s report on the October 7 failures as well as managing the current ceasefire and potential transition to a permanent ceasefire.
Further, he said he wanted to transfer management of the IDF while the security situation has the military in the strongest and most stable situation it has been since October 7, 2023.
Katz pushing government
Katz has been trying, according to all observers under orders from Netanyahu, to push Halevi out since he took over the defense ministry from Yoav Gallant on November 6.
Most analysts say that Netanyahu wants to blame most of the October 7 failure on Halevi as the IDF issues its probe into that failure while avoiding any state inquiry into his own actions as the architect of containing Hamas and facilitating it receiving funds from Qatar while prime minister for most of the 2009-2023 period.
A large question is still whether Halevi will call for a state inquiry as his former intelligence chief, Aharon Halvi, did when he resigned in August 2024.
Separate from Netanyahu, many IDF officers have believed that Halevi stayed on for too long in light of the October 7 failures, while others supported him to ensure that a hostage deal would take place, despite Netanyahu’s perceived opposition to such a deal.
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