On Oct. 7, We in the IDF Failed Israel. But We Also Learned How to Win | Opinion

A year ago, the State of Israel suffered the worst terror attack in its history. It was one of the darkest days in the history of the Jewish people, a day that will live in infamy and forever be etched into our collective memories. It was also a day of deep personal grief for thousands of Israeli families whose loved one were murdered in their beds, executed in the streets, massacred at a music festival, or taken hostage into the tunnels of Gaza.

The horrors of that day should never be forgotten. Nor should anyone forget that it was Hamas‘s actions on October 7 that brought us to the current reality in the Middle East. Hamas started this war with the explicit aim of sparking a regional conflict.

For the Israel Defense Forces, it was a day in which we failed. We failed in our most basic task to protect the people of Israel. That is a burden every officer in the IDF will carry with them. We knew we had to take responsibility and that we must learn the lessons of that failure.

But there was something else we had to do that day: We had to move forward. We had to regroup, rebuild and reorganize. We had to immediately put in place a strategy that would allow us to defend our country and achieve the objectives set for us by the government—to dismantle Hamas and bring our hostages home.

The following day, October 8, two things became clear to the leadership of the IDF: The first was that this would be a multi-front war. Hezbollah immediately joined the attacks against us, and soon after, Iranian backed proxies from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen would begin a sustained drone and missile campaign against the people of Israel. The attacks from the north and the east picked up in intensity and scope; Hezbollah, the Houthis and proxies from across the region escalated their attacks. And that regional component took on a new level with the direct Iranian ballistic missile barrages against Israel in April and, again, just a few days ago.

The second thing that became clear on October 8 was that Israel would rise out of the ashes and overcome the challenges before us. When the IDF called people up to reserve duty, more people arrived than were called up. When the Home Front came under attack, the civilian population followed the instructions from the Home Front Command and minimized the damage. When we took the initiative, we began to dismantle our enemies piece by piece.

We have eliminated most of the leadership of both Hamas and Hezbollah. We have dismantled whole brigades of Hamas in Gaza. We are working to systemically dismantle the capabilities Hezbollah built up to allow them to invade northern Israel and carry out an October 7 of their own. We have shown the incredible technological and human capital which allows us to defend ourselves against one of the most sustained aerial terror campaigns in history.

There is much to be done and we remain in the midst of a complicated multi-arena war. The cost to the State of Israel has been high, the tragedies countless. The hostages and their families are in our thoughts and in our hearts. The cruelty of holding children and the elderly hostage remains unfathomable to any decent human being. Bringing them home remains a core mission and we will not rest until that mission is completed.

Today, a year on from October 7, our enemies should understand that the gruesome attack that day was a strategic mistake. Israel cannot, and will not, be defeated.

There is no path to eliminate the Jewish state as the Ayatollahs in Iran have dreamed of doing. There is no way to break the Israeli spirit as the terrorist leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah believed.

The IDF will keep moving forward. We will keep working to achieve the aims of this war. And we will, ultimately, be victorious.

Daniel Hagari is an Israel Defense Forces Rear Admiral who currently serves as the head of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.