The Israeli military’s intelligence chief has resigned over the failure to prevent a Hamas attack that left about 1,200 dead and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Aharon Haliva, head of military intelligence, handed in his resignation after 2 1/2 years in the role, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Monday.
He’s the first senior Israeli official to step down over the assault by Hamas, an Iran-backed group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union.
In the aftermath of the attack, Haliva accepted the blame for failing to prevent the incursion, in which hundreds of armed Hamas fighters swarmed over Gaza’s heavily-fortified border with southern Israel and overran communities and military bases.
“The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,” Haliva said in his resignation letter, made public by the IDF.
“Until the end of my term, I will do everything to bring about the defeat of Hamas and those seeking to harm us and for the return of all the hostages and captives to their homes and land.”
There have been growing protests in Israel in recent weeks, involving tens of thousands of protestors, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to take responsibility for the attack and resign.
Netanyahu has refused to acknowledge his own responsibility for the intelligence and operational failures that led to the incursion and has repeatedly said they will all be investigated only once the war is over.
More than 130 hostages, some dead, remain in Gaza. More than 34,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza.
