Daniel Hagari

Daniel Hagari (דניאל "דני" הגרי; born 1976) is an Israel Defense Forces Rear Admiral (Tat-Aluf) who currently serves as the head of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

Previously he has served as the commander of the Israeli Navy's operations directorate, the Chief of Staff's assistant, Commander of the Shayetet 13 marine commando unit and the office of the Chief of Staff.

Hagari joined the Israel Defense Forces in March 1995, and volunteered to the naval special operations unit, Shayetet 13.

After completing the warrior course training in the Shaytet, he then went to the infantry officer course.

At the end of the course he returned to the Shayetet 13, and was appointed a platoon commander during Operation Defensive Shield.

He later served as deputy commander of the Gadsar Nahal between 2003 and 2004.

After that he was appointed deputy commander of a fighter in Shayetet 13.

In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel (Sgan-Aluf) and appointed commander of a vessel squadron in Shayetet 13, and served in this position until 2009.

He was then appointed commander of a training squadron in Shayetet 13 between 2009 and 2011.

He later served as deputy commander of Shayetet 13 between 2011 and 2012.

Afterwards he was appointed head of the Chief of Staff Benny Gantz's office, a position he served in between the years 2013-2015.

In 2015 he was promoted to the rank of colonel (Aluf-Mishne) and appointed head of the operations directorate of the Israeli Navy, until 2017.

in May 2017 he was appointed as Chief of Staff's Gadi Eizenkot's assistant, and served in the position during the Northern Shield operation, in this position he served until 2019.

On July 31, 2019, he was appointed Commander of Shayetet 13, a position in which he served until June 15, 2021.

For the activities of Shayetet 13 under his command, he was awarded the Chief of Staff Medal of Appreciation and the Chief of Staff's award for outstanding units in 2020, and the Chief of Staff's citation on June 16, 2021.

At the end of his position, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General (Tat-Aluf) and on June 17, 2021, he assumed his position as the Chief of the Navy's Fleet.

On March 29, 2023, he was appointed Chief of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit to succeed Ran Kochav.

Hagari's appointment was the continuation of a recent policy to tap career military officials instead of civilian journalists as head of the Spokesperson's Unit.

On Nov. 14, in an English-language video posted on official IDF web channels, Daniel Hagari guided viewers through the basements of Al-Shifa Hospital and Rantisi Children's Hospital in Gaza after their capture by Israeli forces.

The goal of this video was to convey "evidence" of Hamas' use of these facilities as headquarters or for other war purposes - a claim already denied by the Islamist organization, as well as by humanitarian and medical organizations working at the health facilities (e.g. Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Norwegian Refugee Council, and Save the Children).

Daniel Hagari is seen pointing to diapers, a baby feeder, toilet paper and a toilet, as well as weapons, claiming this to be proof that hostages were allegedly being held in these facilities prior to capture by the IDF.

International observers pointed out that all the items shown in the video could have been used by civilians who had taken refuge there during the IDF shelling that preceded the ground operation or, in the case of the weapons, could have been planted by Israeli forces themselves.

Notably, a segment of the video struck viewers' attention and was rapidly re-shared on social platforms, in which the IDF spokesperson states that a paper sheet on the wall of the facility is a "guarding list" (a shift schedule) in which "every terrorist writes his name and every terrorist has his own shift guarding the people who were here."

Shortly after the video was published, Arabic speakers pointed out that in fact the paper sheet shown in the video was a handwritten calendar with no names.

Eventually, an Israeli spokesperson acknowledged a translation error in Hagari's statement and stated that the video of his commentary distributed to the media had been corrected, with the specific reference to the document deleted.

Daniel Hagari was awarded three campaign ribbons for his service during three conflicts, as well as one Chief of Staff Citation.

Hagari grew up with two brothers in Tel Aviv.

He has a wife and four children.

Has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in diplomacy and security, both from Tel Aviv University.