
The investigation into the night leading up to the October 7th Massacre paints a picture of the military only having a partial assessment of the situation that did not indicate the impending Hamas attack, Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
The investigation's full findings will be presented to IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi amid Defense Minister Israel Katz's demand to complete all investigations by the end of January.
According to the report, on the night before the massacre, the Chief of Staff received an intelligence update and asked to speak with the commanders. At 4:00 a.m. on the 7th, he spoke with the commander of the Southern Command and the head of the Operations Directorate and was briefed on the existing intelligence, understanding that something unusual was going on. The intelligence presented to Halevi did not indicate the onslaught that was about to descend on southern Israel.
The investigation found that Halvi was mistaken for not ordering a full situational assessment. In addition, some of the intelligence mentioned during the situational assessment was not known to the participants and the information that was received did not indicate an immediate attack.
It was also claimed that if all relevant officers had been present at the situational assessment, it would have been possible to find intelligence and indications of the impending attack and different decisions would have been made.
Five months ago, the findings of the first inquiries into the massacre were presented to Halevi. Those inquiries were presented in July in Halevi's office and concentrated on what happened during the day before the attack. The meeting was conducted under strict compartmentalization and all participants had to undergo a polygraph test and were signed to secrecy.