IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir will remain in Israel and will not travel on a planned visit to the United States in about a week and a half.
According to a report by Ynet, Zamir decided to cancel the trip due to the heightened security tensions and the increased state of alert he ordered in the IDF.
During the visit, the Chief of Staff was expected to hold talks with the commander of US Central Command and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The talks were expected to focus on cooperation between the two militaries in confronting Iran and other threats.
Zamir informed his American hosts that under the current circumstances, he prefers to remain in Israel. After ordering the military to raise its alert level and instructing commanders to remain in their sectors, he believes it would be inappropriate to manage developments from abroad.
A senior IDF official explained: "You can't put the army on alert and fly abroad."
The heightened alert relates to several fronts: In the Gaza Strip, there is a concrete warning of a possible Hamas attempt to abduct a soldier. Hamas is seeking to take advantage of the period ahead of the elections in Israel and the United States, based on the assumption that Israel's ability to respond forcefully would be limited.
The IDF views the combination of the Tishrei holidays, the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre, and Israel's election campaign as requiring special vigilance. The concern is that even a localized incident could quickly develop into a broader escalation.
Zamir's decision to remain in Israel was made even before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Tuesday remarks at the Israeli Air Force's Tel Nof base, where he warned of the possibility that Israel's enemies would try to attack ahead of the elections.
However, according to the report, there is currently no known concrete warning of an attack against Israel. Rather, the IDF has a broader assessment that the sensitive period could be exploited by Israel's enemies in attempts to act against it.