Exchange of accusations between Israeli army leadership following the failure of the 'Gideon's Chariots' operation

SadaNews - Internal tensions have escalated within the Israeli army leadership following the confirmed failure of the "Gideon's Chariots" operation in the Gaza Strip. Internal criticisms of this military operation, which started off poorly, peaked during discussions of the General Staff last Thursday, according to Israeli media reports today, Wednesday.

According to leaks, there was tension and raised voices among generals during the Israeli General Staff meeting, with Air Force Commander Tomer Bar accusing Southern Command chief Yaniv Asor that the "Gideon's Chariots" operation was executed "unprofessionally" and resulted in targeting Palestinian civilians who were not involved in the fighting. Asor responded by saying, "You over there in Tel Aviv are isolated from the battlefield."

The essence of this exchange between the two generals was leaked to "Yedioth Ahronoth," while "Haaretz" pointed out that the leak "reveals the depth of the damage to the army's cohesion following the failure of the Gideon's Chariots military operation and the pressures exerted on the army leadership from the political level," which is expected to demand an expansion of the war and full occupation of the Gaza Strip during a political-security cabinet meeting tomorrow.

Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Asor had promised at the outset of the "Gideon's Chariots" operation on May 16 that it would achieve all its goals, although some generals had doubted this at the time.

"Haaretz" quoted a senior Israeli officer as saying that Asor did not accurately assess how this military operation would proceed, stating that "Asor watched the war from the Kirya (military headquarters in Tel Aviv) when he was head of the human resources division, and suddenly found out that it wasn't as easy as he thought, and that not everything you want to carry out will happen."

The officer added that "Asor did not recognize the exhaustion of the soldiers in the battlefield, and he and the Chief of Staff realized that this is more complicated than he thought before taking office. Asor believed that if we attack more, eliminate more, and kill more people, Hamas would surrender. This did not happen, causing frustration for him. He feels as though they left him alone."

According to the newspaper, the Air Force commander's statements about managing the war reflected the position of many senior pilots who requested to halt their air raids in Gaza after Israel waged war against Iran, "explaining to Bar that they were having difficulty continuing the fight due to the deaths of non-combatants across the sector, especially in food distribution centers."

The newspaper added that "In the Air Force, they repeatedly said that the use of air power is being done without operational thinking and without the aim of sustaining forces in the battlefield as it was in the early stages of the war. There are pilots who believe, like their commander, that the Southern Command's handling of fire is unprofessional and not in line with the war, and that one consequence is the killing of many civilians in Gaza."

Asor had criticized pilots who protested the fighting style in Gaza, including stating that "pilots should sit one day with a D9 bulldozer driver and then cry," according to the report.