The head of Israel’s intelligence service resigns in anticipation of October 7

The head of Israel’s military intelligence has resigned and takes “responsibility” for the bloody Hamas attack that sparked the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the army announced Monday.

The same day, a Gaza official said that around 200 bodies had been exhumed since Saturday from mass graves at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes, in the south of the territory. When asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately respond.

General Aharon Haliva is the first political or military figure to resign since the unprecedented October 7 attack carried out by commandos of the Islamist movement Hamas, which infiltrated from Gaza.

“On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a deadly surprise attack on the State of Israel. (…) The intelligence service under my command has not fulfilled the mission entrusted to us,” wrote General Haliva, who has a military career of 38 years, in his resignation letter published by the army.

The announcement comes as Israel celebrates the holiday Pessah, the Jewish Passover, one of the most important in the Hebrew calendar. This year’s celebration is marked by the absence of the 129 hostages held in Gaza since October 7.

On Monday evening, during the traditional Seder meal, protesters set up a huge table, with empty chairs and plates, in front of the Israeli prime minister’s home. They also set fire to another table. The hostages’ families had called for a chair around the table to be left empty, a symbol of the hope of seeing the hostages return.

On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to deal “new hard blows” to Hamas, which he, along with the United States, Canada and the European Union, considers a terrorist organization.

“Black Day”

“I have carried that dark day with me ever since. Day after day, night after night. I will bear this terrible pain forever,” General Haliva wrote in his letter.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an offensive that has killed 34,151 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas.

On the ground, bombings and fighting continued Monday in the besieged Gaza Strip, which was threatened with famine.

Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to proclaim his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, in the south of the area, which he considers Hamas’s last major stronghold.

The military claims that some of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 are being held in Rafah. More than 250 people were kidnapped that day and 129 of them remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom Israeli officials say died.

But humanitarian organizations and many other countries, including the US ally, are against the operation, fearing a massacre in the border town with Egypt, where one and a half million Gazans, residents or displaced persons, are crammed together. .

200 bodies exhumed from Khan Younes

An AFP correspondent reported intense artillery fire in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip, late Monday.

Earlier in the day, drones struck a schoolyard in the al-Bureij camp in the center of the area.

“At 1:15 am we suddenly saw fire, rubble and destruction all around us. We started to flee and found the mosque destroyed,” Mousaad, a resident of this camp, told AFP.

The Israeli army announced that it had launched an operation in the center of the Gaza Strip and would “continue to eliminate terrorists and dismantle terrorist infrastructures.”

In Khan Younes, a Gaza official said that about 200 bodies had been exhumed from mass graves at Nasser Hospital in three days. Like other hospital complexes in Gaza, it had previously been the subject of a raid by the Israeli army. She accuses Hamas of using hospitals as military command centers.

A Gaza civil defense spokesman told AFP that several of the bodies found had decomposed, making the process of identifying victims even more complex.

A Civil Defense source and another within the Hamas government, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, put the number at 283 bodies.

The Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younes on April 7.

American aid

This macabre discovery comes shortly after the United States approved $13 billion in military aid to its Israeli ally.

For Hamas, Washington gave Israel the “green light” to continue “aggressing” the Palestinians.

The United States emphasizes the need for an immediate ceasefire over the release of the hostages. But negotiations conducted through the mediating countries have stalled, with both camps accusing the other of blocking them.

In addition to the heavy human toll and destruction, the war has also created a serious humanitarian crisis, threatening the approximately 2.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip with famine. Meeting with AFP, a resident of the area’s center, Naim al-Goaan, said he had transformed a parachute filled with humanitarian aid into a makeshift shelter.

“People called for help and we recovered the parachute to turn it into a tent where my sister sleeps at night while we use it as a shop during the day. »

In addition, violence is increasing on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, between the army and the Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, as well as in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces carry out almost daily raids and say they want to fight against Palestinian armed forces. armed forces. groups.

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