Channel 12 anchor Yaron Avraham claimed in a thread on X that the head of the IDF intelligence, Aharon Haliva, was not on call and that his staff avoided waking him up, believing it was unnecessary.
The decision caused a large delay in raising the alert level, which did not occur until the morning.
פרסום ראשון במהדורה: השיחה הדרמטית בליל 7 באוקטובר וההסבר התמוה של ראש אמ"ן. עקבו אחר השרשור: >>
— Yaron Avraham ירון אברהם (@yaronavraham) July 8, 2024
"We reveal for the first time that Haliva, in personal conversations within the Intelligence Directorate, explains that his absence was not due to being asleep and unreachable during his vacation in Eilat at that hour," Avraham tweeted.
What happened?
So if he wasn't asleep, why did he miss the 4 a.m. assessment?
"According to Haliva himself, the reason he did not join the 4 AM situation assessment with the Chief of Staff was that his personal intelligence aide, Nadav, did not deem it necessary to include him in the call."
Haliva said his aid did not think the evidence was conclusive and did not want to wake him up.
More figures were absent from the 4 a.m. assessment due to being abroad or unreachable. This was compounded by the Chief of Staff's personnel not inviting senior officials to the call, with some claiming that it was policy for Military Intelligence staff not to be present if the head of their department was not.
The IDF Spokesperson's response to Avraham's inquiries was, "The statements attributed to the Head of Military Intelligence were not made by him."
Avraham called this out "Unfortunately, this is not true. It's a pity. There will be more to discuss."
The IDF has recently delayed the release of a report on exactly this subject raising speculation as to the exact reason.