The Israeli army estimates that it will not be able to complete the investigations into the October 7 failures until the end of next January, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Friday.

This comes after Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced yesterday that he had instructed the Chief of Staff of the Army, Herzi Halevi, to complete these investigations by the end of next month and that until then he would not approve any promotions for officers.

The newspaper added that the Israeli army divided the investigations into four topics: the concept of defense in the years preceding October 7, 2023; the concept of intelligence in those years; the fighting on October 7; and the fighting in the "Gaza Envelope" area later.

Each of these topics involves a great many details and many military and intelligence units, each of which must present its conclusions to the General Staff. In addition, there are about 30 investigation centers for towns in the "Gaza envelope" and military sites. Therefore, the army will not be able to carry out these investigations until the end of next month, so that "the public's confidence in the results of the investigations is gained," according to the newspaper.

The newspaper pointed out that the Shin Bet also did not submit its investigations, "even though its responsibility for gathering intelligence information in Gaza is greater than that of the army."

But the newspaper pointed out that "the Shin Bet is directly subordinate to the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu), who, unlike Katz, has not yet demanded an end to the Shin Bet investigations."

The newspaper added that the army and Shin Bet investigations "also raise the question of when an external fact-finding committee will be formed to investigate the performance of the political echelon. It is difficult to escape the feeling that the campaign against an official commission of inquiry is not only related to problems of trust in the acting president of the Supreme Court (who is required to form the committee and appoint its chairman from among the retired judges of the court), but is simply an attempt to evade criticism."

In this context, Amos Harel, a military analyst for Haaretz, noted that Katz's demand that the army end its investigations could have been considered objective and a necessary step, "had it not been for Netanyahu's categorical refusal, along with all the Likud ministers, to bear any responsibility for the failures" that led to the Hamas attack on October 7.

Harel pointed out that "Netanyahu himself added difficulties for months to conducting internal investigations in the Israeli army, when he refused to appoint former Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz as head of the investigation team, a year ago."

“Katz’s new demand from Halevi explains precisely why Netanyahu appointed him as Galant’s successor. He did so so that Katz would respond to all his steps aimed at creating difficulties and obstacles for Halevi. Netanyahu fired Galant in order to remove an obstacle that would have prevented the implementation of his plan to pass the Haredi exemption from conscription. But Halevi presented a plan to recruit about 4,800 Haredim by the summer of next year, and that the army would be ready within two years to recruit entire regiments of Haredim in the following years. This was not what Katz and Netanyahu expected to hear. Now, they are trying to show Halevi the way out of the army.”

The Israeli Army Radio also indicated that Katz's announcement yesterday "officially opened the door to the race for the position of Chief of the General Staff."