Katz to Halevi: All Oct. 7 probes must be done by end of January

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz on Thursday told IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi that all October 7 disaster probes must be finished by the end of January 2025.

However, the Jerusalem Post has learned that this is only the deadline to present the probes to Katz, not to the general public. Katz will decide how quickly the probes should be presented to the wider public - whether within days, weeks, or a couple of months, only after spending some time reviewing them. 

Katz also threatened Halevi that he would freeze all potential high command appointments until he receives the probe results.

The defense minister blocked multiple mid-level appointments recently, saying that the officers in question could not be promoted until their role in the October 7, 2023, disaster was clarified. This latest move by Katz sets the stage for massive political and military bombshells.

Militarily, Katz, in some ways, is moving the IDF into the post-Halevi phase.

One of the most fundamental roles of the IDF chief is his appointments’ power. It both allows him to shape the IDF’s present and future according to his strategic leanings and gives him greater influence over the various officer levels below who hope he will give them promotions.

Halevi likely to resign when October 7 probes published 

Further, Halevi has said repeatedly that he is likely to resign around when the October 7 probes are published.

A recent letter from Halevi seemed to set the end of February as a target date for finishing the probes.

It was unclear what brought about Katz’s latest move to bring that date forward.

Publication of the October 7 probes will also have political implications as there will be rising additional calls for a state inquiry into the political echelon as well, given that Prime MInister Benjamin Netanyahu has blocked any such probe from even starting until now.

Other political reasons that Katz may have made the current push now could relate to an impending hostage deal – which could end the war in Gaza more formally and would leave less reasons to delay publicizing the October 7 probes – and to Netanyahu’s trial, which is distracting from the prime minister and the Likud’s messaging.

Publishing the October 7 probes could provide Netanyahu with another major point with which to attack the IDF in the public sphere.

Top opposition official Benny Gantz supported Katz on pushing for the probes to be publicized, but said that it was ethical malpractice to do so without having a state inquiry into the political echelon's role into the October 7 disaster.Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein also supported publicizing the probes, while noting that his committee would only carry out its own smaller inquiry, and encouraging the government to open a state inquiry, though in less aggressive language than Gantz.

Government sources said that the IDF needed to publicize its results first to provide closure to victims and their families from October 7 who are still in the dark about some of the raw military details which transpired. They said that the government may choose to probe itself at some point, but if the pace or model of such an inquiry is insufficient for the public, such an issue can be raised whenever the next election comes around.