Israeli Army Chief Admits Errors for Failing to Prevent Hamas Attack
The Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, admitted this Thursday that the Security apparatus “made mistakes” after failing to prevent the Hamas offensive and the ground incursion that caused the death of 1,300 people in Israel, in his first intervention public after six days of war.
In a press conference near the dividing line with the Strip, where the strong air attacks against the enclave continue that have already left at least 1,417 Palestinian dead and more than 6,000 injured, the top Army official also promised that “the crimes will be investigated.” failures in the military chain”, but urged the Palestinian militias in the coastal enclave to focus for now on managing the conflict.
“The Israeli Armed Forces are responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the areas of the Gaza Strip we did not deal with it,” Halevi declared.
“We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war,” he added, in a context in which Israel is accumulating a large number of troops around the Strip, while there is speculation about a ground offensive that could be increasingly imminent.
Halevi said everything possible will be done to rescue hostages taken from communities in southern Israel who are now held captive in Gaza and in the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who are demanding an exchange with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails..
Israeli security forces were caught by surprise in Hamas' Saturday morning offensive, which led to the largest massacre and worst military failure in the country's history..
“The killing by the murderous terrorists of Hamas, human animals, of our children, women and our people, is animalistic and inhumane,” stressed Halevi, who also blamed Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahia Sinwar, “for this horrible stroke”.
“He and the entire system under his command are dead men. “We will attack them, dismantle and dismantle their system,” he said.
Since the war broke out, the whereabouts of Sinwar and other senior Hamas officials in the Strip have been unknown, nor did they make public statements or pronouncements during these days.