IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned Wednesday that Israel must remain constantly prepared for a surprise war, drawing a direct connection between the intelligence and readiness failures surrounding the Yom Kippur War and the October 7 massacre, according to the IDF.

Speaking during an exercise of the IDF’s new 38th Division, Zamir described the two events as “two painful shortcomings, two failures, with a connecting thread between them.”

“Reality is constantly sending us signals,” Zamir said, adding that the military has an obligation to identify those signals, listen to them and continually adjust its assumptions.

Zamir said the possibility of a surprise attack must remain a constant concern throughout the IDF rather than something considered only when intelligence indicates that an enemy is preparing for war.

The remarks came exactly three years after Hamas shattered Israel’s assumptions about Gaza by launching its massive surprise invasion of southern Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)