UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS
By Rania Abu Shamala
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi announced Tuesday that he will resign in March, citing military failure in preventing the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
In a statement, Halevi said he notified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz that he intends to resign on March 6.
His resignation will come about 10 months earlier than the standard three-year term after serving two years and two months in office.
Following Halevi’s suit, the army’s Southern Command Chief, Yaron Finkelman, also announced his resignation.
"On Oct. 7, 2023, I failed to defend the western Negev, and this failure will remain engraved in my mind for the rest of my life,” Finkelman said in his resignation letter.
The Gaza Strip falls under the army’s Southern Command.
The resignations come on the third day of a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal that took effect on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Following the resignations, former Defense Minister and leader of Yisrael Beiteinu Party, Avigdor Lieberman, called on the Israeli government to resign.
The current right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in power since late December 2022.
"Respect to Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and now the Prime Minister and his entire disastrous government must take responsibility and resign," opposition leader Yair Lapid said on his X account.
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected opposition calls for early elections for over a year and refused to take any responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack.
Several Israeli officials have resigned over the Oct. 7 failures, most notably the head of the Israeli Army Intelligence Directorate, Aharon Haliva.
The Israeli war on Gaza has killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 110,700 others, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.