The head of Israeli military intelligence, General Aharon Haliva, submitted his resignation due to his “command responsibility” in the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that occurred on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army announced, Monday 22 april. This is the first Israeli official – political or military – to resign since the bloody incursion of fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement.
General Haliva, “in coordination with the Chief of Staff, requested that his functions be terminated,” the army said, adding: “It has been decided that General Haliva will leave his functions and take up his post. retirement from the army once his successor is appointed. » “On October 7, 2023 (…), the intelligence service placed under my command did not fulfill the mission entrusted to us,” declared General Haliva, who has a thirty-eight-year military career, in his resignation letter issued by the Israeli army.
Israel, which celebrates the start of Pessah, the Jewish Passover, on Monday, is preparing to increase military pressure against the Palestinian Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip. “We will deal him new hard blows (…). Over the coming days, we will increase military and political pressure on Hamas, because this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve our victory,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message broadcast Sunday evening on Telegram.
For his part, the Chief of the Israeli General Staff, General Herzi Halevi, participated in a meeting on Sunday with the commanders of military operations in Gaza, and “approved the next stages of the war”, announced the door – army spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, on
More than six months after the start of the war, Mr. Netanyahu continues to proclaim his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah. The Israeli Prime Minister considers this town in the south of Gaza, where almost half the population of the enclave has taken refuge, as the last great bastion of the Palestinian Islamist movement. But humanitarian organizations and a growing number of countries oppose this operation, fearing that it will cause many civilian casualties. The Israeli military maintains that some of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 are being held in Rafah.
“Two hundred days of captivity for the hostages”
The war between Israel and Hamas has left 34,151 dead in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to a report released Monday by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s health ministry. On the Israeli side, around 1,170 people died – most of them also civilians – during the October 7 attack, according to a tally from Agence France-Presse (AFP), compiled from sources Israeli officials. Additionally, more than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and taken as hostages to Palestinian territory, where 130 are believed to remain detained, although 34 are presumed dead, according to the Israeli military.
The families of the hostages called on Israelis to leave an empty chair during the ritual Seder meal, which marks the start of Passover, so as not to forget them. “At Passover, there will be two hundred days of captivity for the hostages (…). We will fight until you return to us,” assured Mr. Hagari.
Fighting and bombings continued in Gaza on Monday, according to an AFP journalist on site. Israeli aircraft and artillery attacked the Zaitoune neighborhood southeast of Gaza City, and drones struck a school playground in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the center of the territory.
Israeli aircraft also bombed Rafah and Khan Younes, in the south of the enclave, where civil defense announced on Sunday that they had exhumed at least fifty bodies of Palestinians buried in the courtyard of the Nasser hospital, one of the largest in the territory. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army, which withdrew from Khan Younes on April 7, said it verified these assertions.
During a conversation on Sunday with Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, insisted on the need “for an immediate ceasefire that guarantees the release of the hostages”. But negotiations for this truce have stalled, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of blocking them.
