External review finds major gaps in IDF October 7 probes

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian and Jewish world reporter Zev Stub join host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

In an indication of the uptick of events along Israel’s northern border, IDF troops conducted an overnight raid in southern Lebanon and destroyed several buildings that were being used by Hezbollah, the military says. This is the second ground operation inside Lebanon in the past several days, conducted outside of the five points Israel now holds inside its neighbor. We learn about the IDF's outlook for a stepped-up conflict.

Upon assuming office, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir appointed a panel of former senior military officers to conduct an external investigation into the series of the IDF's internal probes in its failures on and ahead of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught. Fabian explores the new panel's findings and where the IDF needs to fill in holes.

Itai Ofir will become the military advocate general later this month after Defense Minister Israel Katz ratified his appointment Sunday. He will succeed Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who resigned and admitted to authorizing the leak of the Sde Teiman detainee abuse video. Fabian describes an unusual rank jump that Ofir will need to be given to assume the role.

After a dramatic negotiation process with several surprise turns, the next leadership of the World Zionist Organization has been selected. Just ahead of recording, Stub learned that Rabbi Doron Perez, chairman of the religious Zionist World Mizrachi movement and father of Cpt. Daniel Perez, who was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, will split the five-year term with the incumbent chairman of the WZO, Yaakov Hagoel.

Last week, Yad Vashem, Israel’s World Holocaust Remembrance Center, said that it has recovered the names of five million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, a milestone it called “historic” in its decades-long mission to restore the identities of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
As part of its mission to mark every one of those six million as an individual, the museum wing has opened a new exhibit with deeply personal affects. Stub was at the new exhibit and reports back.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

External panel appointed by IDF chief finds most of army’s Oct. 7 probes inadequate

Katz okays Itai Ofir as next IDF legal chief, despite Netanyahu’s reported objection

Lapid rips up ‘corrupt’ WZO leadership deal, opens door for Yair Netanyahu appointment

World Zionist Congress devolves into chaos after Yair Netanyahu tapped for key role

WZO heads likely to throw out thousands of suspect ballots as they meet on voter fraud

Yad Vashem says it has compiled 5 million names of Jews murdered in Holocaust

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IMAGE: Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the village of Teir Debba, southern Lebanon, November 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)

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