Several senior IDF officers of the Gaza Brigade and Southern Command were opposed to approving the huge music festival that took place on October 7th near Re’im and ended in the deaths and abduction of hundreds of participants, Haaretz reported on Monday.

The officers, including Lt. Col. Sahar Fogel, were opposed to approving the event due to the location’s close proximity to the Gaza Strip and the fear of rocket attacks. At that point, the possibility of a terrorist infiltration wasn’t even considered.

However, the officers’ opposition was overruled and the event was approved by the IDF’s Operations Directorate after reportedly “unusual pressure” by unknown sources to approve the festival.

The first request to hold the event was received three months prior and was scheduled for one night earlier, the night of Hoshanah Rabah. After the event was approved over the head of Lt. Cl. Fogel, further approval was received to extend the event for another day to include Shabbos Simchas Torah, despite the fact that the IDF defined the area as having a higher chance of being hit by possible rocket attacks.

According to the investigation, Lt. Col. Fogel expressed his fervent opposition to allowing the festival to be extended by another day. According to military sources who were privy to the details, the Operations Directorate claimed that refusing the producers’ request to hold the festival could run into legal issues because according to the letter of the law, the request can only be refused if the area in question had been declared as a closed military zone.

Amid these discussions, intelligence alerts were received in the week before the festival that Hamas was planning to carry out a major terrorist attack in Israel, heightening the concerns of the officers opposed to the event. The investigation also showed that in the last hours before the attack, alerts were received for a security incident of a terrorist infiltration but the information was not transmitted in real-time to the producers of the event.

The IDF spokesman said in response to Haaretz: “The IDF will conduct a detailed and in-depth investigation on the incident when the operational situation allows it and will publish its findings to the public.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)