Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israeli Katz have agreed on the appointment of Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir as the next chief of staff of the military.
This decision comes after Zamir's predecessor, Herzi Halevi, announced his resignation last month, taking responsibility for the security failure during the Hamas-led attack last year.
A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel posted on X (formerly Twitter) reads, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have agreed on the appointment of Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Eyal Zamir as the next IDF Chief-of-Staff."
According to AFP, 59-year-old Zamir has been serving as defence ministry director general since 2023 and he retired from the military after losing out on the top job to Halevi. Zamir had served as the deputy chief of staff until 2021 and prior to that was head of the army's Southern Command, which is responsible for Gaza.
As the head of the Southern Command, Zamir led operations to "thwart offensive terror tunnels penetrating from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory," the Israeli defence ministry said.
Halevi, who will leave the office on March 6, congratulated Zamir on his appointment and committed to a professional transfer of command. In his resignation letter, Halev said that he was stepping down "due to my acknowledgment of responsibility for the (military's) failure on October 7, (2023)", but added that he was leaving at a time of "significant success", AFP reported.
Despite public anger over the attack, Netanyahu's government has resisted calls to open a state inquiry into its own responsibility for the security failure that resulted in 1,200 mostly Israelis being killed and about 250 hostages taken.
