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[global times comprehensive report] according to the times of israel, on the 12th local time, yossi sariel, commander of the israel defense forces' "unit 8200", said he would resign. according to reports, the "unit 8200" is the main signal intelligence unit of the israel defense forces. the unit was accused of failing to prevent and stop hamas from launching an attack on israel on october 7, 2023. sariel had previously worked in military intelligence for a long time and became the commander of the unit in february 2021. the israel defense forces said that someone would take over the position of commander of the "unit 8200" "in the future."

in his four-page resignation letter, sariel said: "i have not met the expectations of myself, the expectations of my subordinates and commanders, and the expectations of the citizens of my beloved country." sariel said that all responsibility for the intelligence and operational failures of the "8200 unit" lies with him, and in view of these failures, "i will pass the baton of the 8200 commander to the next person."

the times of israel mentioned that after hamas launched the attack in october last year, several senior defense and security officials, including the director of the israeli military intelligence agency and the head of the southern region of the israeli security agency, resigned one after another. but sariel refused to resign at the time, saying that this move was tantamount to "cowardice."

the guardian said that unit 8200 was equivalent to the us national security agency or the british government communications headquarters, and was highly praised in israel for its outstanding intelligence gathering capabilities. after the attack in october last year, unit 8200 was widely regarded as one of the biggest failures of the israeli intelligence community.

as the commander of unit 8200, shaliye's identity has been kept strictly confidential in israel. however, in april this year, the british newspaper the guardian revealed how the head of the spy department had exposed his identity online for several years. the report revealed that shaliye published a book under a pseudonym, and the digital clues in the book could be traced back to the private online account he created. the guardian said that this mistake caused fierce criticism and ridicule of shaliye in the israeli media, and brought further pressure on the head of the intelligence department.

the guardian mentioned that although shaliye admitted that he was personally responsible for the failure of his troops, he pointed out that there were broader failures in israel's security and political institutions. shaliye wrote in his resignation letter: "in the years, months and on the day before october 7 last year, as a whole security system, we failed to connect all the information and be prepared to respond to the threat." (li bo)