IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has indicated a possible date for his resignation: the end of December, three months from now, Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the Chief of Staff chose December as his possible resignation date since the IDF predicts that by the end of the year, the investigations into the events of October 7th in all branches and arrays will conclude.
Halevi will be able to sign on the investigations as the Chief of Staff and present them to the public. In addition, by December Halevi is expected to complete the preparations for an all-out war in Lebanon.
That said - if, in the meantime, a major war were to break out in the north, the Chief of Staff would stay on to complete that so as to not hand over the position to a new and less experienced Chief of Staff.
The IDF commented on the report: "The report on the date of the Chief of Staff's expected resignation is untrue and unfounded. The Chief of Staff is fully focused now on running the war, leading the IDF in battle, and reaching the war's objectives."
Earlier in the day, it was reported that Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel, the commanding officer of Unit 8200, the IDF's most prestigious intelligence unit, notified the IDF Chief of Staff and Intelligence Directorate Chief Shlomi Binder of his decision to leave the military due to his part in the failures that led to the October 7th massacre.
Sariel is the second senior IDF intelligence official to step down in light of the failures, following former Intelligence Directorate Chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva.
Sariel wrote in his resignation letter: "On October 7th, at 06:29, we did not perform as I expected of myself, as my subordinates and commanders expected, and as the citizens of the country that I so love expected of me."
He added: "Personally, I failed by not adequately understanding the need, and therefore I didn't adequately reflect the need, that in the special reality on the Gaza border, we as a system are held to a different risk management level which stems from the small margin of error that can be tolerated in the region."