Former IDF Chief Halevi Calls October 7 Preventable in First Public Remarks on the Attack

Herzi Halevi, the former IDF chief of staff who led Israel's military when Hamas attacked on October 7, addressed the assault publicly for the first time Sunday, calling it a preventable failure while insisting there was "100%" no betrayal from within Israel's defense establishment.

Halevi spoke at a New York conference hosted by Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center. It was his first public comment on the attack since resigning more than a year and a half ago.

He said he could account for the day's events down to the smallest details and was completely certain no treachery had occurred. Aiding Hamas, he argued, would have required a broad network of collaborators - and after three years, not a single such person had been found. He called on Israel's political leadership to state loudly and clearly that there had been no betrayal.

The remarks land in a charged political fight over how the attack happened. Israeli media reported that the betrayal theory Halevi rejected has been promoted on Israel's far right, including by the prime minister's son Yair Netanyahu, as well as by anti-Israel activists abroad. Neither the government nor current IDF leadership had responded as of Sunday evening.

Halevi also addressed the pre-war security assessment known in Israel as the "konseptzia": the working assumption was that Hamas did not want a war, and Israel's priorities ranked Iran first, Hezbollah second and Hamas after them. Hebrew coverage rendered his word for the failure as "mechdal" - the grave-lapse term Israelis also apply to the Yom Kippur War surprise.

On the hostages taken into Gaza, Halevi acknowledged that Israeli bombs had killed captives but said the hostages would not have come home without military pressure, Israeli media reported.

He urged continued examination of the failures. By calling October 7 preventable, he placed responsibility on the system rather than on any hidden act of sabotage.

(Featured image: official IDF portrait of Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit, CC BY-SA 3.0.)