GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 279

Not Even Close

First Report On 10/7

Many news outlets reported on an account made public by the IDF admitting that they made many crucial errors about the Hamas attack as we see in an article from the Jerusalem News Syndicate:

Nearly 350 Hamas terrorists, including 100 members of the terror group’s elite Nukhba Force, managed to infiltrate Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel on Oct. 7 due to catastrophic failures by the Israel Defense Forces in their readiness and response, according to the first part of the IDF’s internal probe of the attacks.

“The IDF had difficulty creating a clear picture of what was happening in the kibbutz until the afternoon hours of Oct. 7, even though the yishuv emergency team had an updated picture of what was happening in the kibbutz during the morning hours,” per the Hebrew report, which the military released on Thursday evening.

This report admits that early on, the IDF didn’t properly warn the residents during the attack on the kibbutz:

“The investigation shows that the security forces did not provide sufficient warning to the residents of Be’eri about the infiltration of terrorists during the first hours of the terrorist attack,” the report adds.

It said that there was a lot of confusion that day:

In the early hours of the attack on Oct. 7, a Shabbat morning, fighting at the kibbutz “was characterized by a lack of command and control and a lack of coordination and order between the various forces and units,” per the investigation, which took three months and drew on hundreds of hours of interviews and thousands of materials.

“This caused a number of incidents in which security forces gathered at the entrance to the kibbutz and did not engage in combat immediately,” it stated.

Family members are calling for IDF leaders to resign. And one former military leader thinks that more could have been seen if the investigation was done:

IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, told JNS that the internal probe, though “serious and professional,” was unable to answer the most pressing question of how the Oct. 7 catastrophe could have happened.

“To answer this question, the investigation should have begun top-down—from the general staff all the way down to the specific events,” Eiland told JNS.

Another person felt that this report should lead to changes in how the IDF responds:

Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told JNS that the Israeli military’s ability to accept responsibility for the Oct. 7 failures must now be translated into a far-reaching reform of long-neglected aspects of the defense doctrine.

“Local response forces and reserve forces dedicated to a quick counterattack would have provided the necessary response, rather than the disorganized arrival of special forces from all over—brave as they may have been,” said Lerman, a former deputy director of Israel’s National Security Council.

Many Local Heroes

The JNS article noted that it was the efforts of local teams that kept things from getting worse:

According to the investigation, Hamas killed 101 civilians at Be’eri and kidnapped 32 people, 11 of whom remain hostages in Gaza. The probe credited the local armed response team with “determination and courage.”

“Their bravery, in defending the kibbutz and its residents with their bodies, should be considered a miracle,” the investigation states. “It was this fighting that stopped the total occupation of the kibbutz and saved many lives.” The Israeli military also praised the yishuv emergency team for “forming an updated situational picture and maintaining contact with the residents under fire.”

While commending the bravery, the report also admitted to mistakes that were made:

“Many security forces fought bravely in Kibbutz Be’eri and performed acts of heroism,” the probe added. “At the same time, serious errors and mistakes were made, and we have the duty to learn, strengthen and correct for the future.”

Israeli soldiers “acted with great bravery and ferocity,” according to the investigation, and 31 were killed in combat, including 23 IDF members and armed response team members, in addition to eight police officers. Many soldiers and civilians were hurt.

Some 100 terrorists were killed at the kibbutz, per the investigation.

The report noted, and rightly so that the IDF was caught by surprise:

The report concluded that the IDF “was not prepared for the kind of extensive infiltration scenario that happened on Oct. 7, which included multiple areas of infiltration by thousands of terrorists, attacking in dozens of focal points at the same time.”

The IDF is conducting a larger investigation into the events of Oct. 7 and its response to the terror attack. The report released on Thursday relates only to what occurred at Kibbutz Be’eri.

The report went back to the time when things started to get better:

A “turning the tide” moment occurred when 99th Division commander Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram was appointed commander of the area, per the investigation.

“Due to the multiplicity of centers and the need for urgent solutions, a senior commander was appointed to each central combat center in order to activate the forces that arrived in the sector in an optimal and coordinated manner, so as not to rely on organic forces, an operation that would have lasted a long time,” it stated.

The appointment of Hiram wound up being “of great significance in increasing the operational effectiveness against the enemy, responding to the residents, and creating clarity in the situation and proper command of the fighting forces,” per the investigation…

Ultimately, the military only took care of its own first and not that of the civilians:

The investigation concluded that at times, “a situation arose in which forces fought to defend a post, and to evacuate and treat wounded soldiers before doing so for the civilians.”

“These cases resulted from difficulty in forming a complete picture of the situation and therefore forces that were attacked acted to defend themselves,” it added. “The imperative to act and strive for the protection of citizens must be absolutely strengthened as a supreme task before anything else. Soldiers will always give priority to treating civilians, evacuation, protection and any need that arises on the battlefield.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi “accepted all the findings that emerged from the investigation and ordered for them to be into future defense and combat plans,” the IDF said.

Hostage Deal Still Not Close

Many news outlets are heralding a change in who will govern Gaza once the war ends as progress to a new hostage deal, but they tend to leave out that Prime Minister Netanyahu actually hardened his stances, stances that Hamas will not agree to as we read in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Israeli negotiators were to depart for Cairo Thursday evening for further mediated deliberations on a hostage-for-ceasefire deal with Hamas, the Prime Minister’s Office said, after talks in Doha Wednesday.

The delegation will be headed by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and will include IDF representatives.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also said the premier met with his negotiating team in the morning after its return from Qatar on Wednesday night. In Doha, the team headed by Mossad Director David Barnea discussed with the heads of the American, Qatari and Egyptian teams “the parts of the deal dealing with the return of the hostages and the ways to implement the proposal.”

That all sounds good, but the article does then give us part that will surely kill any deal with Hamas:

Netanyahu’s office stressed that the conversations only examined ways to bring the hostages home while “ensuring that all the war aims” are achieved.

During a graduation ceremony, the PM added this:

In a speech Thursday afternoon at a graduation ceremony of the IDF’s officers school, Netanyahu vowed Israel would continue the war against Hamas “until we achieve all its objectives.” He listed the goals of the war as “the elimination of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, the return of all our hostages home, thwarting any future threat to Israel from Gaza,” and the return of displaced Israelis to their homes in the south and north.

“There are those who ask how long the campaign will continue,” Netanyahu went on. “I say two words: Until victory. Until victory, even if it takes time.”

Netanyahu said he was fine with the overall structure of the deal, however he isn’t bending on keeping Israel safe from another terrorist attack:

He said he was committed to Israel’s framework for a deal, “but the murderers of Hamas are still sticking to demands that contradict the framework and endanger the security of Israel. As the prime minister of Israel, and out of national responsibility, I am not prepared to agree to these demands.

Netanyahu actually toughened two of them:

Any deal, he said Thursday, “must allow Israel to resume fighting until all the goals of the war are achieved.” It must also prevent weapons from being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, “primarily by means of Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing,” he went on, adding the references to the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had offered leeway as regards the Gaza-Egypt border corridor.

The report would go on to detail more of a proposed deal, but the PM went on to state this:

He said he was sure that if Israel stands behind these conditions, “we’ll achieve a deal that will free our hostages and also ensure that we will continue to fight until all aims are achieved. The way to free our hostages is to continue to pressure Hamas with all our strength.”

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that a deal is close after statements like that.