IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir's decision to dismiss multiple senior military officers - including reservists - was a 'field trial,' one officer who was dismissed told KAN News on Sunday.
"[Zamir] didn't even care to hear my thoughts and arguments on Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Sami Turgeman’s investigation," the officer said.
Zamir's decision to dismiss the officers came following the IDF's 'probe of probes,' which was based on Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Sami Turgeman’s investigation.
The results of Turgeman’s investigation were published this past February, aligning with the findings released on November 10.
Among those dismissed from reserve duty was the former head of Military Intelligence, Aharon Haliva.
"Hopefully, there will be a state commission of inquiry, and it will hear me. Everything is fine," Haliva said.
Eyal Zamir on October 7 failure
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir addressed his decision to punish commanders and generals for military failures on October 7 after the findings of two IDF probes were made public.
"The IDF is committed to a thorough, professional, and in-depth inquiry of everything that occurred on that terrible day," Zamir said.
"I have taken a series of steps to advance the issue, including the establishment of an independent review team to examine the inquiries and their findings."
He stated that "the IDF failed in its primary mission on October 7," which marked a "severe, resounding, systemic failure, relating to decisions and conduct on the eve of the event and during it."
"It is not easy to make decisions that affect people I appreciate and who dedicated their lives to the security of the nation," Zamir explained, but this is a "responsibility we bear by virtue of being commanders in the IDF."
According to Kan News, senior government officials have been criticizing Zamir's decisions. One of the main complaints, as anonymously declared by one of the dismissed officers, is: "The chief of staff's decisions are puzzling; the decisions look like a staged performance of a campaign of revenge against the generals Basiuk and Finkelman. This is not how public trust in the IDF can be restored."
"The correction must be carried out by commanders who are not connected to the failure," the senior official added.