OFFICIAL: Eyal Zamir will be Israel's next Chief of Staff
The Prime Minister's Office announced that Netanyahu and Katz have agreed to appoint Eyal Zamir as the IDF's next Chief of Staff.


The Prime Minister's Office just announced tonight (Saturday) that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have agreed to appoint Major-General (res.) Eyal Zamir as the IDF's next Chief of Staff.
The decision comes after current IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi resigned last week over his failure to protect Israeli territory and especially the Western Negev from the massive Hamas assault of thousands of terrorists on October 7, which resulted in over 1,000 Israelis killed and over 200 taken hostage.
Halevi said that he did not resign immediately after the massacre due to the need of the army to rebuild itself and effectively fight back. Now that there is a ceasefire in place in both the north with Hezbollah and in the south with Hamas, Halevi felt that now was the time to step down.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, who succeeded Yoav Gallant, the minister at the time of October 7, then said that he would work to find Halevi's replacement as soon as possible.
Katz's candidates were boiled down to three: IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Amir Baram, Defense Ministry Director-General and Major General (res.) Eyal Zamir, and Major General Tamir Yadai, who until recently served as commander of the IDF's Ground Forces Command.
After interviewing all three candidates, Prime Minister Netanyahu interviewed the three candidates himself.
Some concerns were raised in rightwing media such as Channel 14 regarding Zamir's views on moral warfare, including a 20-year-old article in which he discussed when it is moral and acceptable to carry out assassinations or strikes with heavy civilian casualties and when it isn't.
This led to concerns that Zamir might be too willing to endanger IDF and Israeli lives in the name of sparing Palestinian civilian lives, an approach many claim is responsible for the IDF's defensive and combat-averse state before October 7.