A timeline presented to the Turgeman Committee and published by Channel 12 on Sunday, paints a picture of the dramatic hours that preceded the October 7th Massacre, and places the conduct of ex-Intelligence Directorate Chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, in the epicenter.
According to the documents, a series of alerts, updates, and missed opportunities accumulated throughout the night, while Haliva was not available by phone and was only receiving messages.
According to the report, at 12:50 a.m., the Intelligence Chief's office received its first update. The Southern Command's intelligence officer relayed unusual indications from the Gaza Strip to the directorate chief's assistant. The assistant sufficed in sending a text message to Haliva, who did not wake up, and did not attempt to call him. Throughout the night, additional alerts accumulated, but it was not until around three in the morning that the assistant woke Haliva and updated him with all the information. Haliva ordered that they only continue monitoring the situation.
A short time later, the assistant updated Haliva that Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was also up to date on the situation. In response, Haliva wrote: "Unnecessary." For the rest of the night, Haliva only received text messages on his personal cell phone, while his military device remained off, and he ignored calls. The Chief of Staff's secretary attempted to contact the directorate chief via his assistant, but he refused, claiming there was no need to do so. Operations Directorate Chief Oded Basyuk also tried to contact Haliva, without success.
After 4:00 a.m., Chief of Staff Halevi asked about Haliva. In response, Basyuk answered: "I haven't managed to catch him." Later attempts to connect the officials ran into delays. The Intelligence Directorate Chief's secretary replied that if it is not an urgent matter, it could wait until the morning. The Operations Directorate Chief's secretary stressed that it was indeed urgent, but was told that the contact would be made at 6:30 a.m. An additional attempt by Basyuk's secretary to contact Haliva's assistant also failed.