THE ISRAELI ARMY’S head of military intelligence has resigned over failures related to the events of 7 October last year, when Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel that left over 1,000 people dead. 

Major General Aharon Haliva is the first high-ranking Israel Defence Forces (IDF) official to step down for failing to prevent the attack.

“Major General Aharon Haliva, in coordination with the chief of the general staff, has requested to end his position, following his leadership responsibility as the head of the intelligence directorate for the events of 7 October,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

“It was decided that MG Aharon Haliva will end his position and retire from the IDF, once his successor is appointed in an orderly and professional process.”

In his resignation letter, Haliva, who served in the force for 38 years, took responsibility for failing to prevent the attack.

“On Saturday, October 7th 2023, Hamas committed a deadly surprise attack against the state of Israel,” he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was given to journalists by the military.

“The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with.

“I carry that black day with me ever since. Day after day, night after night. I will forever carry with me the terrible pain of the war.”

In his letter, Haliva called for a “thorough investigation into factors and circumstances” that led to the attack.

Questions about Israel’s lack of preparedness for the attack were immediately raised in the aftermath of 7 October. Warnings from IDF observers near the Gaza border about Hamas and other groups preparing for the operation were reportedly ignored. 

West Bank funerals

Families in the occupied West Bank have mourned those killed in an IDF raid on a refugee camp that left 13 people dead. 

People kissed the faces of the dead and neighbours cried in the streets after one of the worst Israeli raids anyone in the Nur Shams refugee camp can remember.

Yesterday a funeral procession for 13 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers passed through roads piled with rubble from Israeli bulldozers and rocket fire.

Israeli forces carry out regular raids on towns and cities in the occupied West Bank, and violence has escalated since the conflict in Gaza broke out last October.

The Israeli army said it had killed ten militants in a three-day “counterterrorism” raid on Nur Shams. Residents in the camp gave a different account.

Niaz Zandeq, 40, said his son Jehad was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on his 15th birthday.

Neighbours said troops told Jehad to leave his uncle’s house then shot him as he stepped out of the front door with his hands up.

They showed the AFP news agency images of his body in the street with a bullet wound to the forehead.

“The minute he came out, they opened fire hitting him directly in the head,” Zandeq said through tears. “He was unarmed.”

The Israeli army has not responded to residents’ allegations.

Jehad was not the only young person among the dead.

On Friday the Palestinian health ministry said 16-year-old Qais Fathi Nasrallah was killed by Israeli troops in the nearby Tulkarem refugee camp.

His father, a paramedic, was on shift at the hospital when staff brought his son’s body in, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Including Nasrallah, the organisation said the total number of dead in Tulkarem and Nur Shams stood at 14.

On Saturday the Israeli army said it had made eight arrests and seized weapons around Nur Shams, and that eight soldiers and a police officer were wounded.

AFP saw armed militants in the camp and at the funeral, where they fired shots into the air.

Ibrahim Ghanim, a 20-year-old law student, said “anyone who fights back in the camp is called a terrorist.”

“Israeli soldiers have killed so many people here over the years I’ve lost count,” he said.

As some residents began clearing debris and repairing their smashed homes, others remained in shock.

Hamdia Abdallah Sarhan, 85, said she was still shaken after soldiers broke into her home and shot at the wall, trying to open up a firing position while she lay terrified on the ground.

Sarhan suffers from a lung condition and uses a machine to help her breathe. She said the soldiers broke the machine when they burst in and she struggled for air until relatives found an emergency oxygen tank.

“I was so scared,” she said. “This violence was more than any I have seen.”

Nine-year-old Misk al-Shaikh was upstairs in her home when Israeli bulldozers tore down the front of the building on Thursday night, she and her family told AFP.

“I was frightened,” she said. “I wanted to hug my dad.”

“The Israeli army operation was to target civilian life,” her father Mostafa said.

“They turned Nur Shams into a little Gaza.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and over 480 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers there since the start of the conflict in Gaza on 7 October, according to Palestinian officials.

Last week, Israeli settlers went on what Amnesty International called a “rampage”, setting fire to homes, trees and vehicles. Four people were killed by the colonisers and Israeli soldiers looked on during the mob attack, Amnesty said.

“The appalling spike in settler violence against Palestinians in recent days is part of a decades long state-backed campaign to dispossess, displace and oppress Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under Israel’s system of apartheid.

“Israeli forces have a track record of enabling settler violence and it is outrageous that once again Israeli forces stood by and in some cases took part in these brutal attacks,” said Heba Morayef, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Mosque destroyed

Doctors at  Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah told AFP that six people were wounded in an Israeli air strike.

A mosque in the nearby Al-Bureij refugee camp was destroyed in a strike, with footage from the scene showing multiple levels of the building collapsed in front of a still-standing minaret.

“At 1:15 am, all of a sudden we saw fire, debris and destruction all around us,” camp resident Mohammed Musaad told AFP. “We started running and found the mosque destroyed.”

Also in Deir al-Balah, Palestinians made a tent out of a parachute used to air-drop aid off the coast.

“When the parachute fell into the sea, we brought it in a small boat,” said Naeem al-Goaan. His sister sleeps in the tent at night, while they use it as a store during the day, he added.

Gaza’s crossings and borders authority said 34 Palestinian detainees had been released from Israeli prison since this morning. Authority spokesman Hisham Adwan said some of the prisoners showed “signs of torture”.

The Israeli military has previously denied such mistreatment.

Israeli soldiers have rounded up hundreds of Gazans during the war against Hamas, holding them without charge before releasing some in groups.

In the main southern city of Khan Yunis, Gaza’s civil defence agency said its teams had discovered a mass grave in the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex previously raided by Israel.

Israel’s military said it was checking the reports, which come after the World Health Organization in early April said Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had been reduced to ashes by an Israeli siege, leaving an “empty shell” containing many bodies.

With reporting from AFP