Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday expressed condolences to the family of Brig. Gen. Amit Saar, who died on Wednesday at the age of 47 after battling brain cancer.

“My wife Sara and I share in the deep grief of the Saar family over the untimely passing of Brig. Gen. Amit Saar, of blessed memory,” Netanyahu said in a statement. He praised Saar as “an upright officer, devoted to his work and capable of voicing his opinion fearlessly, eloquently and clearly.”

Saar headed the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Research Department at the time of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and participated in Israel’s most sensitive security discussions until he fell ill.

He stepped down in April 2024 to undergo treatment after previously accepting responsibility for intelligence failures leading up to the Hamas-led assault, writing in a farewell letter to IDF officers that the intelligence establishment “did not live up to what was expected of us.”

Before taking over as head of the Military Intelligence Research Department in 2020, Saar served as an intelligence officer in IDF Southern Command. He leaves a wife and three children.

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