IDF drills, ammunition gaps, and a dismissed officer still on duty

A year after dismissal, Gaza Division intel officer still serves; police face a bullet shortage; and the IDF rehearses a multi-front attack on Eilat.

IDF drills, ammunition gaps, and a dismissed officer still on duty — The IDF conducted an extensive extreme scenario exercise in Eilat simulating a multi-front attack on the southern city, with infiltration into hotels and schools as part of the drill.[^1] The exercise comes as the military faces a series of internal contradictions. Nearly a year after Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered the dismissal of the Gaza Division intelligence officer, Lt. Col. A., the officer continues to serve in the IDF's cyber unit, arriving every morning at his office in the Kirya in Tel Aviv.[^2] The gap between command decisions and on-the-ground reality is not limited to personnel. The Israel Police, meanwhile, is running low on ammunition for its Arad 7 rifles. Only about 2,000 bullets remain in police warehouses, and the police are now requesting an urgent procurement of about 130,000 bullets.[^3] The shortage is a practical failure that sits alongside a strategic one: Israel remained the world's most targeted nation by hacktivist attacks in the first half of 2026, absorbing 16% of all such campaigns globally.[^4] Ron Meyran, vice president of Cyber Intelligence at Radware, said the most worrying finding is that the gap between Israel and other targeted countries continues to widen.[^4] On the innovation front, Covenant, a missile startup founded in 2024 by Israeli-American Michael Kaufman, emerges from two years of stealth, revealing a $250 million raise.[^5] The company has signed $150 million in supply contracts with US and European security agencies and tested its Anthem long-range cruise missile in Israel in June 2025.[^5] Senior officials from Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works were in Israel last month for a rare visit to identify battlefield-proven technologies.[^6] The Pentagon's interest is also evident in a $1.2 million emergency contract to repair an underground test facility in New Mexico, signed four days before the start of Operation 'Epic Fury'.[^7] The buildup of capabilities continues, even as the IDF rehearses for the worst. Likud's internal fractures and the scramble for seats after list closure — Yaakov Bardugo, a Channel 14 commentator and host, leads mentions