Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Herzi Halevi addressed the October 7 Hamas massacre publicly for the first time on Sunday, saying the attack was a preventable failure but rejecting claims that there had been an internal betrayal.
Halevi made the remarks at Shurat HaDin’s third annual Rage Against the Hate Conference, held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The conference brought together representatives of dozens of pro-Israel organizations, foreign policy and security experts, legal scholars, academics and American public opinion leaders.
Responding to claims that the October 7 attack had been an "inside job," Halevi said there had been no betrayal within Israel's security establishment.
"There was absolutely no betrayal. The political echelon and the country’s leadership need to state this clearly and unequivocally," he said.
"I know these individuals, and I cannot believe that any of my colleagues—after decades of service during which they risked their own lives—would suddenly decide to assist Hamas. Furthermore, from a practical standpoint, aiding Hamas would require not just a single collaborator, but an extensive network. Yet, even after three years, not a single such person has been found."
Addressing calls for a State Commission of Inquiry into the October 7 failures, Halevi said Israel needed to complete its investigation and confront the mistakes that had been made.
"As part of the process of learning and healing, Israel must complete its investigation and ask difficult questions—just as we have done within the IDF. This is of great importance. October 7th was a failure that could have been prevented," he said.
"We must look failure in the eye in order to be able to fix things," Halevi added, referring to the killing of members of the Bibas family. "I look at a photograph of Shiri Bibas and see the fear in her eyes. We were not there in time to help and save her. That is the failure."
Halevi also discussed the military campaign in Gaza and the role of ground operations in securing the release of hostages.
Asked whether "absolute victory" was achievable, he said it had taken considerable time to persuade the political leadership to authorize a ground operation in Gaza.
"It took us a long time to convince the political echelon to conduct a ground maneuver in Gaza. We needed to break the pattern of small, limited rounds of conflict that relied solely on airstrikes," he said.
"Without strong military pressure inside Gaza, we would not have been able to bring the hostages back. I can prove this."
Halevi acknowledged that mistakes had been made during the fighting, including incidents in which Israeli strikes killed hostages.
"Unfortunately, we made mistakes. Our own bombs killed hostages. Of course, this was not intentional; we did not know they were there. We underwent an accelerated learning process to improve our ability to pinpoint the exact locations of the hostages, with the goal of preventing such errors," he said.
Looking back at the events leading up to the massacre, Halevi said the military's priorities had been shaped by the perceived threats from Iran and Hezbollah, with Hamas considered a lesser immediate threat.
"We should have gone to war in Gaza, but our order of priorities was: first Iran, then Hezbollah, and only then Hamas—because we did not know that Hamas intended to carry out an operation of this scale," he said.
He added that the prevailing assessment among the IDF, Shin Bet and political leadership was that Hamas did not want a full-scale war.
"The prevailing view within the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the political echelon was that Hamas did not want war—because it sought to demonstrate its ability to provide for the two million Palestinians in Gaza, with the ultimate goal of eventually seizing control of Judea and Samaria as well. That was our concern. Hamas invested significant effort into leading us to this assessment."
Halevi also described how Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had sought to prevent Israel from anticipating the scale of the October 7 attack and deter it from launching a ground operation in Gaza.
"Yahya Sinwar did everything in his power to catch us off guard and launch simultaneous operations. Every point along the Gaza border was attacked immediately after 6:29am," he said.
According to Halevi, Israel also sent a warning to Hezbollah on the morning of the attack to discourage it from opening a second front.
"By the late morning of October 7, we conveyed a message to Hezbollah: ‘We were caught by surprise in Gaza, but we are watching you closely. Should you make even the slightest move, a devastating blow will fall upon Lebanon.’"
Shurat HaDin president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said the fight against antisemitism required cooperation across legal, diplomatic and technological fields.
"The existential struggle of the State of Israel and the Jewish people is no longer confined to the military battlefield alone. Surging antisemitism and modern-day hatred of Israel are fueled by massive funding—leveraging artificial intelligence, social media, and international legal systems—in an attempt to defeat us," she said.
"Our response must be an unprecedented collaboration among legal experts, diplomats, researchers, and technology professionals."
Written in collaboration with Shurat Hadin