IDF Military Advocate General Maj.-Gen. Itay Offir will issue multiple major decisions regarding Gaza war crimes allegations in the coming weeks, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Among these decisions, which will be the first that Offir will be publicizing relating to Gaza since he took office in November 2025, will be the April 2024 World Central Kitchen incident, the March 2025 Palestinian Red Crescent incident, and a few other high-profile incidents.
In some ways, these will be Offir's opening move on his legal playing field with the world, having made some monumental decisions with mostly Israeli implications in recent months.
One could call the IDF legal division's standing on the world stage a part of the third of his three circles in which he focuses his efforts, the Post understands.
The first circle is within the IDF legal division itself.
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo) Offir has a tall order of rebuilding the confidence regarding the IDF legal division on multiple planes, but the first one is internal.
When his predecessor, Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, suddenly resigned in October 2025, along with some of her top staff, after admitting to illegally publicly leaking a video of evidence in the Sde Teiman saga case, morale in the IDF legal division was at an all-time low.
Within the legal community and in the government more broadly, officials from the IDF legal division had always generally been viewed as highly talented and professional, and they end up rising to senior positions in large firms or to top posts in various government agencies.
One of Offir's first jobs has been to rebuild that confidence.
In order to do that, the Post has learned that soon after he took office, he set about meeting, over a series of weeks, with every single sub-unit of the sprawling IDF legal division, which has several hundred lawyers and even more other support staff on every border and in every sub-arm, such as the air force and navy.
It was important to Offir to hear directly from the IDF's lawyers, in small enough groups that even junior lawyers would speak freely, what they needed in order to regain their swagger.
His second circle is between the IDF legal division and the rest of the IDF.
Here, Offir has a huge advantage.
He already worked closely for two years with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, when the two worked at the Defense Ministry.
Put differently, he has already served as the top lawyer of an agency run by Zamir before.
Just as Offir became one of Zamir's key close advisers, and not just a lawyer, at the Defense Ministry, during Operation Roaring Lion, the IDF MAG was by Zamir's side for most of the war.
For 40 days, the Post understands that Offir relocated from his standard MAG office space to the underground "Pit" where Zamir managed the war day-to-day with himself and only a few other generals from the high command.
Between those 40 days and Offir's numerous visits to the front in Gaza and Lebanon , IDF officers have remarked that the new MAG is much more comfortable in the field with commanders on the front than Tomer Yerushalmi was, and more than some other predecessors, though they too visited the fronts at times. In fact, Offir is unusual in that he served as a combat fighter in the Givati Brigade, something uncommon for most IDF MAGs.
All of this also gave Offir more respect and influence in some of the recent Iran war decisions, such as clear directives to evacuate certain Iranian sites, which Israel had a legal right to attack, but which could lead to unpredictably high-profile collateral harm.
New Military Advocate-General Itai Offir speaks during his swearing-in ceremony, November 27, 2025 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) The final circle is with the whole country and the world.
Regarding this circle, one thing that is different about Offir from some prior MAGs is that if some of them would emphasize the slogan of Israel and the legal division needs to "win on all fronts," he would agree with that, but add that first, the IDF must win its kinetic wars.
In other words, Offir is cognizant of the importance of IDF and Israeli legitimacy in the world, but he views his first job as facilitating the IDF to win battles – of course, always within the confines of Israeli law and the spirit of the IDF.
This approach will probably find favor with some in Israel who, rightly or wrongly, have felt that the IDF legal division has sometimes held the military back too much from acting to win.
Yet, none of this means that Offir will go soft on real legal issues.
In fact, Offir may return some stricter order in various areas than the IDF atmosphere that took hold under Tomer Yerushalmi following the October 7 invasion.
In Offir's view, following the IDF's senior officers…
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