Israeli commander resigns after being accused of failing to prevent October 7

CNN
—

An Israeli intelligence commander who critics say played a key role in failing to prevent the October 7 attacks is resigning, the Israeli military told CNN.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Brigadier General Yossi Sariel, who headed the IDF's reconnaissance unit 8200, had informed them that he would “terminate his position in the near future.”

The country's public broadcaster, Kan, and several other media outlets have published excerpts from his resignation letter, in which he says he feels personally responsible for failing to stop Hamas from carrying out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

“On October 7 at 06:29 a.m., I failed to perform my duty as expected of myself, my subordinates and commanders, and the citizens of the state I love so much,” the letter said.

“Today, in accordance with the war situation, the processes of gathering ranks and building unit resilience, and after completing the initial investigative processes, I ask that you fulfill my personal responsibility as unit commander and hand over the baton to the next shift on October 7 at a time to be determined by my commanders,” it said.

Shortly after the attack, several senior defense and security officials took at least partial responsibility for the missteps that led to Hamas's attack on Israel, which left 1,200 people dead and another 250 taken hostage.

On October 16, the head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, which is responsible for counterterrorism, wrote a statement saying: “The responsibility lies with me.”

“Despite a number of measures we have taken, we have not been able to generate sufficient warning to thwart the attack,” said Shin Bet chief Ronan Bar.

Later that month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also faced sharp public criticism after he accused security chiefs of failing to warn him of the impending attack in a later-deleted social media post.

In an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw on “Dr. Phil Primetime” in May, Netanyahu acknowledged that there had been political and military failures. “The first responsibility of the government is to protect the people. That is the ultimate, comprehensive responsibility. The people have not been protected. We have to admit that,” Netanyahu told Dr. Phil.

When asked if he himself held himself to that standard and failed in some way, he replied: “I hold myself to it and everyone else does. I think we need to examine how it came about. What was the intelligence failure?”

This story has been updated with additional details.