Israel’s military chief of staff Eyal Zamir has put forward the name of controversial senior commander Barak Hiram to serve as military secretary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israeli outlet Ynet. The nomination has reignited debate over far-right ideological shifts within the country’s top military ranks, given Hiram’s long record of divisive actions and hardline political views tied to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Hiram is one of two final contenders for the position, which will be vacated by outgoing official Roman Gofman, a close ally of Netanyahu who is widely expected to take over as head of the Mossad intelligence agency. The other candidate for the role is Tal Politis, a senior leader in the Israeli Navy.
Hiram first became a polarizing public figure immediately after the October 7 attacks led by Hamas, when he ordered Israeli tank forces to fire on a residential home in Kibbutz Beeri where Hamas fighters were holding Israeli civilian captives. Of the 15 hostages inside the building during the strike, only two survived the incident. Despite widespread public outcry over the deadly incident, Hiram has repeatedly defended his decision, noting in subsequent media interviews with outlets including *The New York Times* and Israel’s Channel 12 that the operation also killed multiple Hamas militants.
Months before Israel launched its full ground invasion of Gaza, Hiram also laid out an uncompromising stance on eliminating the group, stating publicly that the Israeli military could not fully destroy Hamas’ infrastructure and governing institutions without a full ground incursion and reoccupation of Gaza territory. That position put him firmly in line with the most hardline elements of Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Even amid sustained criticism over the Kibbutz Beeri incident, Hiram has continued to climb the military leadership ladder. He was later appointed to lead the Israeli military’s Gaza Division, and was previously reported by Israeli media to be in consideration for the role of head of the military’s Operations Directorate, one of the most powerful positions in the entire Israeli armed forces.
In 2024, then-Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi issued a formal reprimand to Hiram over the unauthorized demolition of a university building in central Gaza City. Israeli media confirmed the demolition was carried out without approval from senior command, and military assessments found the structure did not pose any immediate threat to Israeli troops deployed in the area. Later that same year, while Hiram commanded the Gaza Division, a unit under his leadership was linked to the killing of 15 Palestinian aid workers and paramedics in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah. No formal disciplinary or legal action has ever been brought against Hiram in connection with that killing.
In 2025 comments tied to ongoing hostage release negotiations with Hamas, Hiram echoed hardline Israeli government and military positions that calling for holding humanitarian aid access to Gaza hostage as leverage, stating that captive Israelis held by Hamas would only be freed “through pressure.”
Critics warn that Hiram’s potential promotion to a key post in Netanyahu’s immediate office comes as part of a broader trend of growing influence for far-right ideologues and West Bank settlement supporters within Israeli military leadership. One high-profile example of this shift is Avi Bluth, the current head of the military’s Central Command, who generated global outrage earlier this year for publicly boasting that Israeli forces were killing Palestinians at a rate “not seen since 1967.”
Investigative reporting from Israeli newspaper Haaretz has shed additional light on Hiram’s long-held hardline views: the outlet confirmed that Hiram expressed ideological alignment with far-right extremist Meir Kahane during his youth. Kahane, who infamously advocated for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Israel and occupied Palestinian territories, saw his Kach movement banned in Israel and designated as a terrorist organization by multiple governments. A former high school classmate told Haaretz in May 2025 that a “Greater Israel” expansionist vision was core to Hiram’s beliefs even as a teenager.
Haaretz further reported that Hiram previously lived in an unauthorized Israeli settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, before moving to the formal Israeli settlement of Tekoa, located southeast of Bethlehem, where he currently resides. When Hiram took command of the Gaza Division in August 2024, his inaugural speech drew sharp condemnation from liberal Israeli voices, when he framed the ongoing war in Gaza as a generational opportunity to advance a Zionist vision of greater Israeli control over the territory. “Our steadfastness stands in complete contrast to the Israeli culture that has developed here, which seeks everything now,” Hiram said in the address, adding that the war offered a chance to secure Israel’s future and advance “the shared Zionist vision for which we longed, prayed, and hoped over thousands of generations.”