Axios: Former Israeli officers… Unit 8200 is experiencing the worst crisis in its history

Axios website quoted former Israeli intelligence officers as saying that Unit 8200 in the Israeli army is witnessing the worst crisis in its history after the failure of October,” referring to Hamas attack launched on October 7 of last year.

According to three former senior officers in the unit, the unit needs basic intelligence work that many of its workers today don’t know how to do, and without it, failure will repeat itself.

They added that appointing Uri Stav as commander of Unit 8200 is a commemoration of the failure that led to the failure of October 7, stressing that it’s an insufficient step to reform and restore it.

A former senior official said that the new unit commander, Uri Stav, failed to influence the previous unit commander, Yossi Shariel, “and didn’t stop the stupidity that led to the disaster”.

Axios stated that the three former officers agreed that although Staff had risen through the technical ranks within the unit, he wasn’t an intelligence man, which is what the unit needs at the present time.

They also pointed out that he had been the former deputy head of the unit for 3 years, and therefore he was involved in the decision-making and failures that led to the failure.

The three former officials said that in order to overcome the intelligence gap, it would be necessary to appoint a deputy commander who comes from the intelligence field, especially since there is a need to rebuild the unit almost from scratch.

Former officials believe it will be necessary to form an advisory team of reservists with intelligence experience who will work closely with the unit commander, his deputy and the intelligence center commander in the rehabilitation process.

On September 12, Yossi Shariel informed Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi of his resignation from his position after being held responsible for the intelligence failures of October 7 and before.

Israeli platforms circulated a letter attributed to the commander of Unit 8200, in which he confirmed his resignation, saying: “On October 7, I failed in my mission… Today, after the completion of the initial investigations, I would like to exercise my personal responsibility and hand over the command to my successor.”

Unit 8200 is the largest unit in the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, and is responsible for collecting primary information, developing and continuously updating information collection tools, analyzing and processing data, and delivering information to the relevant authorities.

This unit often participates and operates from within combat zones.