IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir will hold a wide-scale operational readiness assessment across all branches of the military on Monday.
The meeting will include the heads of the Southern, Central, and Northern Commands, as well as those of the Air Force, Navy, and the Technology and Logistics Directorate.
The assessment, which comes more than 670 days into the Israel-Hamas War, will review precise data and tailored courses of action for challenges across all fronts, with an emphasis on the state of the reserve forces.
In the coming days, Southern Command head Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Assur is expected to present his plan for the takeover of Gaza City, and Operations Directorate head Maj.-Gen. Itzik Cohen will recommend the scope and distribution of forces for the operation, as well as preparations across the various arenas ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays.
The assessment follows the surprise drill for IDF headquarters that Zamir announced early on Sunday morning.
As part of the exercise, some of the most senior IDF officers, including Israel Navy commander V.-Adm. David Salama and Israel Air Force chief of staff Brig.-Gen. Omer Tishler, were called from their homes without prior notice.
The unannounced “Dawn” readiness test examined the preparedness of the general staff and other top headquarters to respond to a complex, multi-front surprise attack. The drill assessed the order of battle on standby, as well as the ability to deal with a fast-developing scenario.
The exercise involved the Operations Division of the IDF Operations Directorate, the Technology and Logistics Directorate, the Southern, Central, and Northern Commands, and the IDF’s Communications Directorate. It aimed to identify any remaining gaps left from the morning of October 7, determine whether lessons learned since then had been implemented, and test performance across multiple arenas simultaneously.
Most of the first 120 minutes focused on measuring the speed of the forces’ response – a time frame the IDF attributes to the critical early hours of October 7, when the military, by its own admission, failed to react quickly enough or fully grasp the scope of the events on the Gaza border.
The simulated scenario included several simultaneous events: terrorist infiltrations, rocket fire from Gaza, and ballistic missile launches from Iran. The IDF checked readiness levels across different units, including the availability of commanders and weaponry.
Zamir held two situation assessments at the Kirya military headquarters' war room, during which he coordinated with all commands and decided on force deployment based on the evolving understanding of events. The IDF confirmed that one of the main challenges was forming a clear operational picture in order to decide where and how to deploy forces in a multi-front context.
The exercise activated the “Parash Order,” prompting the scrambling of fighter squadrons and naval flotillas up to the moment of takeoff and departure to sea.
One main takeaway from the exercise was the need to sharpen procedures within and between commands, move forces quickly, and meet deadlines for deployment to the eastern border in a possible surprise scenario involving armed terrorists. One scenario involved 15 pickup trucks storming a community along the Jordanian border.
A senior IDF officer who took part in the drill said: “In the hours I was tested, I did not see failures or disasters like on October 7. I can vouch for that – I did not see it. What I did see was the difficulty and complexity of bringing a large mass of forces, in the air and on the ground, to the eastern border in a short time.”
Army Radio advisory committee
Defense Minister Israel Katz signed the appointment letters for members of the new Army Radio (Galei Tzahal) advisory committee on Monday, according to N12 reporter Dafna Liel, stating:
“The Israeli government established Galei Tzahal as a military station to serve as the voice and ear for IDF soldiers and their families. I made it clear from the outset that I am not willing for the current situation to continue - and what was will not be.”
The committee will review the station's future and consider the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining its connection to the IDF or keeping it as a military unit.
"At this time, when the State of Israel is engaged in an ongoing campaign on several fronts, it is necessary to reassess how well Army Radio fulfills its mission, and whether it succeeds in being the voice and ears for IDF soldiers and fighters at the front and in the home front," Katz said on Thursday.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.