Eyal Harel

Eyal Harel (; born April 27, 1974) is an IDF officer with the rank of Vice Admiral, serving as Commander of the Israeli Navy since 2026 and Head of the Planning and Force Build-up Directorate. Previously he served as Head of the Planning Division, Commander of the Naval Headquarters and as Head of the Naval Intelligence Division.

Early life and education Eyal Harel was born in Ramat Gan. The family moved to the Golan Heights.

Harel is a graduate of the Inter-Service Command and Staff College, the Brigade Commander's course. He holds a BA in economics and business administration from the University of Haifa. He also has an MA with honors in political science and national security from the National Security College and the University of Haifa. Additionally, he holds a cum laude MBA in big data and business intelligence from Data & Decision Science Faculty at the Technion.

Harel is married to Yael, née Klineberger, who works at the University of Haifa, and is the father of three daughters. He resides in Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv.

Missile Ships Flotilla Harel was retrained in the command field, assigned to Flotilla 914 and served as deputy commander of Dvora patrol boat. In 1999 he graduated with distinction from the PIM course for Dvora commanders and took command of Dvora 811. He served as Dvora commander in Flotilla 914 and was engaged in routine security in the Southern Lebanon sector.

At the General Staff In 2015, Harel was appointed Head of the Planning Department in the Planning Directorate. In this role, he was responsible, among other things, for planning and implementing the IDF Gideon Doctrine.

At the Navy Headquarters In July 2018, Harel was appointed Head of the Naval Intelligence Division. In this position he made changes to the organizational structure of the division to adapt it to the way the Intelligence Directorate functions and its work processes. For this purpose, a third department – the Operations Department – was established in the division, whose purpose is to maintain close working relations with the Operations Division in the Intelligence Directorate and the IDF Operations Branch.

In October 2019, Harel was appointed Head of the Naval Headquarters. He worked on adapting the change in the Navy's operational headquarters, establishing the Control Unit and the Economic Maritime Arena at the department level, writing an operational concept for the operational headquarters in operational activity, and leading the activity of the Navy during the between the wars campaign period.

At the General Staff In May 2021, Harel was appointed head of the Planning Division in the Planning Directorate. As head of the Planning Division, he engaged in planning and implementing the Momentum IDF multi-year plan of the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. On May 3, 2023, the decision was announced to appoint him as head of the Planning and Force Build-up Directorate, with the rank of Major General,

In December 2025, defense minister Israel Katz approved Harel's appointment as the next Commander of the Israeli Navy. The decision was delayed for weeks due to a dispute with IDF chief Eyal Zamir.

Commander of the Navy On 16 April 2026, Harel was appointed as Commander of the Navy during a ceremony held at the Atlit naval base, succeeding David Saar Salama. His appointment, originally scheduled for March, was delayed due to the 2026 Iran war.