The top IDF Southern Command intelligence officer colonel, "A," is resigning his post in that command, with the possibility that he may also be forced to resign from the IDF entirely, the IDF updated on Thursday.
The announcement comes less than a day after IDF Intelligence Analysis Chief Brig. Gen. Amit Saar announced that he would resign in June with the publication of the IDF probe into the failure of Israeli intelligence to prevent the Hamas massacre on October 7.
Bizarrely, the IDF said that the colonel was resigning due to personal reasons without reference to the failure of October 7.
Rather, the IDF said that he is resigning because of an improper romance that he had with a female intelligence officer below his rank.
Official may have been forced to resign
Despite the IDF news about the improper romance, the official might have eventually been forced to resign because of his role in the October 7 failure, given that the results of the expected hard-hitting IDF probe is expected to come out in June.
Under IDF regulations, it is improper for senior officials to have relationships with junior officers, whether married or not.
The IDF said that the junior officer was closer to his age and not a very young officer and did not work directly in his bureau, although there was no answer about whether and where in the IDF Southern Command she might have worked.
According to the IDF, the romance did not relate to the October 7 failure because it started post-war, though no evidence was provided on this point or on the point of how the romance might have impacted the intelligence officers’ abilities to perform their roles post-war.
The IDF said that the colonel only recently came forward on his own to reveal the romance and announce that he would leave his post in the IDF Southern Command.
Already, The Jerusalem Post and other media have reported that a Lt. Col. “A” in IDF Southern Command Intelligence was responsible for ignoring the warning of a Hamas invasion by more junior intelligence officer “V.”
To date, A has not yet resigned.
The colonel would have been A’s superior officer leading into October 7.
It was unclear if the colonel would resign entirely from the IDF, be transferred, be forced to quit entirely, or potentially even be probed and disciplined.