"I respect General Halutz's military past, but his appointment as deputy chief of staff is incompatible with his positions which are contrary to the army's code of ethics," Ran Cohen told AFP.

He was referring to Halutz's declarations after a July 2002 air missile strike in Gaza targeting a chief of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, Salah Shehadeh, in which 17 people, including nine children, were killed.

"I reject any criticism of the operation. It is indeed regrettable that innocent children were killed, but those who assassinate children in Israel must know that children that live among them can be hit," Halutz said at the time, adding that the raid's toll "did not prevent him from sleeping."

Halutz will end his current functions in April. By becoming the next deputy chief of staff, he will be the most serious successor to current chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon.

WAR.WIRE