Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram assumed control of the IDF’s Gaza Division on Monday, replacing Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, who resigned following his failure to protect southern Israel on Oct. 7.
A handover ceremony was held in Beit Hanoun area of the northeastern Gaza Strip on Monday, the military said in a statement.
“We are determined to achieve the goals of the war,” Hiram, 45, told attendees. “We will continue to fight until the Hamas terrorist group is defeated, until the hostages are returned and until the residents of the ‘[Gaza] Envelope’ return to their homes in safety.
“Protecting the residents of the ‘Envelope’ is the mission of the division, and it is my mission. Together, we will work to restore security and trust and return residents to their homes,” he said.
Hiram, a religious Jew from Tekoa, a town in the Gush Etzion region of Judea, had been next in line to take the reins of the Gaza Division before the current war, but the appointment was put on hold amid a probe into his role in a failed hostage rescue attempt during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks.
Earlier this year, an IDF investigation found that small arms fire from Hamas terrorists, and not a tank shell fired on the order of Hiram, killed several hostages held captive in a Kibbutz Be’eri home on Oct. 7.
In fact, the decision by the IDF’s General Staff and Southern Command to order Hiram to command the battle in Be’eri “significantly increased operational effectiveness against the enemy” and was a “turning point that led to regaining operational control of the kibbutz,” the army said.
Hiram, who previously commanded the IDF’s 99th Paratroopers Division, suffered months of online harassment following the events in Be’eri.
During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hiram commanded a platoon of the Egoz guerrilla warfare and special reconnaissance commando unit. During the fighting, he was seriously wounded and lost one of his eyes.
On Oct. 7, 2023, some 6,000 Gazan terrorists invaded Israel by land, sea and air, killing around 1,200 people, abducting 251 people back to Gaza and using rape and torture as weapons while temporarily conquering several Israeli communities.
