The IDF announced on Tuesday that it will present its first probe in a series of October 7 probes – the investigation into the failure to defend Be’eri – on Thursday.
According to the military, the results of the probe will first be presented to the families of those who fell at Be’eri on October 7, including the Be'eri residents as well as the many security forces from the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and police.This presentation will take place at a large amphitheater in the Dead Sea area early Thursday afternoon.
Later Thursday night, the results of the probe, including extensive diagrams and video footage will be posted on the IDF’s website.
The Be’eri probe is the first of a series of IDF probes into the October 7 failure to prevent Hamas’s invasion, which will come out on a rolling basis through July and August.
According to the previous media leaks, the IDF probes will find numerous cases of: friendly fire errors leading to tragic deaths, of groups of IDF soldiers who were too hesitant to confront Hamas invaders (even as some groups rushed to fight who had not yet been summoned), of senior commanders ordering some groups of soldiers to remain in a reserve second line capacity when they should have headed into the front, and specifically of not knowing how to handle complex battlefield questions involving hostages in Be’eri.
Consequences of the findings
One of the consequences of the findings to date, some of which are final, but some of which are interim, could be to freeze the promotion of Brig.-Gen. Barak Hiram who had been expected to assume command of the Gaza Division.Hiram has been one of the most controversial commanders of the war who gave orders to fire on homes which included both Hamas terrorists and hostages, killing terrorists and hostages alike.However, his attack order may allegedly have been focused on saving his soldiers who were under fire, and whether there was any way to rescue the hostages without attacking their Hamas guards is also debated.In any event, after October 7, Hiram was highly successful in several battles.His command skills were considered instrumental in ousting Hamas from Be’eri at a time when other commanders nearby had been killed or had fled.This means that while some hostage families would raise an outcry if he were given that Gaza Division command, many military colleagues would cry foul if he is not given the command, since they consider him to have been one of the most successful and battle tested commanders.Aspects of a major probe of the IDF and defense establishment’s general national security and defense concept, in relation to Gaza and Hamas since 2018, will be presented by key officers to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi this month, but will only be made publicly available late summer after they are integrated with other issues.The IDF said that it expected that as part of an eventual state inquiry and eventual State Comptroller report, such probes might look further back in time, but that if the IDF had now probed back beyond 2018, it would have delayed publication of the results.IDF Maj. Gen. Mickey Edelstein led the probe on Be’eri.Besides Be’eri, some 40 probes of other individual battles relating to October 7 will be revealed on a rolling basis from mid-July through August.A probe specifically devoted to the events of October 6, specific warnings and operational moves, made or not made, during that period, will likely be revealed in early August.The IDF started the process for the probe in March.Despite the IDF probe, initiated in March, most defense officials are calling for a state inquiry which would also probe the political decisions and actions of the government.However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed any state inquiry, fearing its political consequences for his coalition.