Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, Chief of General Staff for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), took command during a turbulent period. Halevi took over an IDF that was shattered by disagreements over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's suggested changes to the Supreme Court in January 2023. Reservists threatened to leave the IDF due to disagreements over these reforms among the officer and reserve corps. The far-right coalition's efforts to curtail judicial authority made the political atmosphere even more hostile.
Then, on October 7, Israel was attacked by Hamas, the terrorist organization in charge of Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people and the kidnapping of over 200 more. Halevi has since spearheaded an IDF infantry and aircraft assault into Gaza. The operation has claimed the lives of almost 10,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. The UN human rights office has said that Israel may have committed a war crime in its attack on the Jabalia refugee camp, sparking international outcry and censure. The debate was heightened by a Netanyahu administration minister who was suspended for speculating that nuclear weapons would be utilized in Gaza.
On the other hand, Halevi is renowned for his dedication to moral combat. He was named after an uncle who was slain in the Six Day War and was born in Jerusalem in 1967. His paternal grandparents left Russia, but his mother's side of the family has strong roots in Jerusalem. Before Israel was founded, the Zionist paramilitary organization Irgun was led by his father's father.
aged the age of 18, Halevi enlisted in the military as a paratrooper, rising to the rank of officer aged 20. He engaged in conflicts with Hizbullah in Lebanon throughout his early career. He later became the commanding officer of Sayeret Matkal, a special military organization that serves in Arab nations. He then oversaw a brigade in the West Bank under occupation and spearheaded a ground invasion of Gaza in 2009 with paratroopers. Halevi oversaw IDF operations along the border with Lebanon in 2011 while serving as commander of the Galilee Division. In 2014, he was appointed chief of military intelligence and went on to command the Southern Command, which was entrusted with stopping Hamas.
After his involvement in the Gaza War in 2008–2009, Halevi became a proponent of moral and legal military practices. He emphasized that commanders have a need to preserve moral standards in urban combat when he chastised other IDF officers in 2009 for not doing so. He upheld the "purity of arms" military tradition in Israel, which was started by Yitzhak Sadeh, the head of the Haganah militia, which existed before the IDF.
However, not every IDF leader has followed this line of thinking. In 1953, 69 Palestinians were killed in a contentious retribution headed by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in the West Bank hamlet of Qibya. Sharon was responsible for failing to stop allied soldiers from massacring Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps during his tenure as defense minister in the 1980s, according to an Israeli investigation.
With the IDF now farther into Gaza than in previous operations, Halevi's dedication to moral warfare is put to the test. The conflict between Sadeh's ideals and Sharon's punitive strategy is reflected in Halevi's leadership as Hamas prepares hardened positions and civilian losses mount. His legacy will probably be determined by how he handled the hardest military battle Israel has ever faced.
On October 7, Halevi took ownership of the IDF's intelligence failure, and on October 12, he acknowledged that the IDF had failed to protect civilians. Although there are rumors that he would step down soon, his primary priority is still to command the IDF in Gaza.