Outgoing IDF Chief Of Staff Gadi Eisenkot on Tuesday concluded his 40 years of service in the Israeli army and stepped down as the IDF’s top officer, turning over the baton to incoming Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kohavi.

Eisenkot concluded his four-year tenure as chief of staff, a period during which he did not lead the army in war, but was dedicated to the “campaign between the wars” and achieved significant accomplishments against Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria, Hezbollah’s terror tunnels from Lebanon, Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria, Hamas’ attacks from Gaza, while assisting in the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.

“We take leave of you today as IDF Chief of Staff, our military leader and defender of our walls,” said President Reuven Rivlin in a ceremony for Eisenkot on Sunday night. “Soldier, commander, statesman, modest, brave, responsible, a first-rate strategist and a people person. Over the last four years, there were no wars, but the IDF under your command never ceased fighting.”

The IDF quipped Sunday that Eisenkot, 59, was “getting ready for the most important job of all: full-time grandpa.”

“Aviv – we have gone through lots together. With full belief in your abilities as a commander, I know you will lead the IDF as a professional and moral army. The State of Israel has merited having you as its chief of staff,” Eisenkot wrote Kochavi on Tuesday.

Kohavi started his new job as the IDF’s 22nd chief of staff with the presentation of his new ranks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning.

Kohavi stated during the ceremony that “after assuming responsibility for the leadership of the army, I pledge to dedicate all my energies, in a critical and demanding manner, to the strengthening of the defensive wall and adapting it to the challenges of the present and the future, with the focus of increasing the ability to harm the enemy, and preparing a lethal, efficient and innovative army, which preserves its mission and uniqueness.”

“Like every soldier being sworn into the army (after his induction), I too undertook an oath to devote all my efforts to the defense of the homeland. Now, as Chief of the General Staff, when I have before me the national security and the good of the State, I swear again. We have lots of work ahead of us. Good luck to us all.”