Report: Days after Oct. 7, Ofer Winter tried to talk PM out of Gaza ground offensive

Former IDF brigadier general turned political hopeful Ofer Winter warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against launching a full-scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion, claiming as many as 15,000 soldiers could die in the effort, according to an unsourced Channel 12 report on Saturday. According to the report, in the days after the October 7 massacre, Winter met with Netanyahu at a secret location without the knowledge or permission of senior military commanders to present an alternative plan to a ground invasion — a total military blockade. The right-wing ex-general also reportedly presented his plan to senior military officials, despite it being beyond the scope of his responsibilities at the time. He argued, according to Channel 12, that the IDF was “incompetent — it doesn’t know how to carry out such a maneuver.” “There will be 15,000 dead soldiers,” Winter reportedly told Netanyahu. “High-rise buildings will collapse on companies, and thousands of soldiers will be abducted. It will be a national disaster.” Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms In the end, his predictions attributed to him did not come to pass. Four hundred and seventy-three IDF soldiers were killed in the Gaza ground offensive. IDF soldiers in northern Gaza in a handout photo from November 11, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces) The television network quoted an unnamed former military official who accused Winter of spreading demoralizing assessments of how the military would perform in the Gaza Strip, ultimately resulting in Netanyahu delaying the start of the offensive. Winter denied the report, saying the claim that he predicted 15,000 dead was a “complete lie.” Advertisement He did not deny, however, that he had offered an alternative proposal to a ground invasion. “The proposal was clear: a powerful, short, and smart war that leads to a decisive victory, and not to a three-year campaign without any resolution,” he said. Winter entered politics last month with the launch of his People of Israel party, which has since been hovering at the edge of the 3.25 percent electoral threshold in opinion polls ahead of the October 27 election. The report was the latest in a string of controversial incidents that followed Winter throughout the last decade of his military career. He first came under criticism during the 2014 Gaza war, when he served as commander of the Givati Brigade, for a letter to his subordinate officers in which he described the operation as a religious war against a “blasphemous” foe. In media interviews, the officer also described his troops as being protected in battle by “clouds of glory,” raising concerns among religious freedom activists that Winter was theocratizing the military. Advertisement Then-Givati Brigade commander Col. Ofer Winter, left, speaks to then-IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, right, during the 2014 Gaza war on August 2, 2014. (Israel Defense Forces) He commanded the forces in the bloody “Black Friday” battle in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza on August 1, 2014. The fighting there became a central issue in a United Nations report on the war, with accusations that war crimes had been committed. In its own investigation, the Israeli military identified failures in how the battle was waged, but no criminal acts. Since that war, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, Winter’s did not reach the heights previously foreseen where he was tipped for advancement to the upper echelons of the IDF. Winter was promoted from colonel to brigadier general in 2015 and was made chief of staff for the Central Command. In 2017, he was appointed military secretary to then-defense minister Avigdor Liberman, and only in 2019 was he given command over a division. Winter served as head of the Central Command’s 98th Division until September 2022, and has been without a role since. In the army’s normal trajectory for promotion, Winter would have been on track to take command of a division in 2018, but he was passed over for promotion by then-IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot. Lazar Berman contributed to this report. Help us report truthfully on social media As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos. This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. 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Sign in to stop seeing this Most Popular 1 Report: Alerted to Hamas onslaught, Netanyahu took 2 hours to leave home, didn’t speak to IDF chief for 3 2 Analysis German far-right AfD party’s projected win puts Jews between the left and a hard place 3 US said drafting postwar plan to create alliance against Iran, expand Abraham Accords 4 Roger Waters to headline 9/11 ‘truth’ conference at NYC-owned museum 5 Analysis El-Sayed and Vance call each other ‘evil,’ while both handling antisemitism the same way 6 Huckabee, in West Bank, urges severe consequences for settler violence: ‘Terror is terror’ 7 US military says it destroyed 3 Iranian oil tankers after IRGC targeted its warships 8 Israeli triathletes barred from race in Northern Ireland after organizer objects read more: Israel Inside Ofer Winter People of Israel party 2023-2025 Israel-Hamas war Gaza ground offensive Israeli politics If you’d like to comment, join The Times of Israel Community. JOIN THE TOI COMMUNITY Already a member? 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