Head of Israeli military intelligence quits over failure to warn of Oct. 7 attack

April 22 (UPI) -- Israel's military intelligence chief resigned Monday over failures in the run up to the Oct. 7 attacks on the country by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in which 1,200 people were massacred.

Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva requested permission to stand down, ending his 38 year army career, to take leadership "responsibility as the Head of the Intelligence Directorate for the events of Oct. 7.," Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X.

His resignation had been accepted by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi who thanked Haliva for his decades of IDF service and his "significant contributions to the security of the State of Israel as both a combat soldier and commander."

It wasn't immediately clear when Haliva would leave his post as the military must find and appoint his replacement.

An internal IDF probe into failures to detect and take preventative steps in the lead-up to Oct 7. is due to report its findings in early June.

Haliva's resignation letter called for a full government inquiry to thoroughly investigate in an "in-depth, comprehensive and precise manner all the factors and circumstances" precipitating Oct. 7.

"The Intelligence Directorate did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. Throughout my duties, I knew that alongside authority comes heavy responsibility," he wrote.

As early as 10 days after Oct. 7, Haliva said he was responsible for blunders that led to the attacks.

"The Military Intelligence Directorate, under my command, failed to warn of the terror attack carried out by Hamas," he said at the time.

"We failed in our most important mission, and as the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, I bear full responsibility for the failure."

Haliva was on vacation in the southern Israel Red Sea resort of Eilat on Oct 7. when he was alerted in the middle of the night of signs that an attack was imminent but reportedly took no part in high-level IDF deliberations and did not make himself available on the phone.

He was later reported as having told colleagues that he would have interpreted the intelligence presented as evidence of a Hamas military exercise, not an actual attack.

"It wouldn't have changed the final result in any way," Haliva reportedly said.