JERUSALEM (AFP) — The outgoing head of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, asked Wednesday for “forgiveness” from Israelis for failing to protect them from Hamas’ 7 October attack.
According to a video released by the Israeli military, Haliva — the first high-ranking official to make a public appeal for forgiveness — said at a ceremony marking his departure that “we did not uphold the sanctity of our oaths.”
The said date when Gaza militants stormed southern Israeli communities, army bases and a rave party, was a “bitter and dark day which I carry in my heart, on my conscience and on my shoulders every day and night since,” Haliva said.
“An apology won’t correct, heal or bring back the beloved ones who paid the heaviest of prices, but it must be said... On my behalf and on behalf of the entire intelligence wing, I ask for forgiveness.”
The military announced in April that Haliva had asked to be relieved of his duties, citing his “responsibility” for the failure to prevent the attack, which triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never formally apologized for the failure of his government or the country’s security forces to prevent the unprecedented attack, the deadliest in Israel’s since it was founded in 1948.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, of whom 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.