What happened
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, announced his resignation Tuesday, citing failures to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that sparked Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. The head of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Southern Command, which oversees Gaza operations, also resigned.
Who said what
“My responsibility for the terrible failure accompanies me every day, every hour and will for the rest of my life,” Halevi said in his resignation letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Halevi is the “most senior Israeli figure to resign over the security and intelligence breakdown on Oct. 7,” The Associated Press said. His departure, effective March 6, is “adding pressure” on Netanyahu to also step aside and support a “public inquiry into the Oct. 7 failures.”
Netanyahu has “declined to take responsibility” for the failures leading up the Hamas attack, insisting that “accountability will come only after the war,” CNN said. The military’s investigations into those failures are “in their final stages,” Halevi said in his letter.
What next?
The 15-month Gaza war is paused under a fragile ceasefire agreement set to include a second round of hostage releases on Saturday. But Tuesday Israel launched what Netanyahu called a “large-scale and significant military operation” in the West Bank, killing at least nine Palestinians and wounding 35. Hours earlier, President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on West Bank “ultranationalist Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian villages,” Reuters said.