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A secret comptroller report chiding Israel’s leadership during the 2014 Gaza conflict was leaked on Thursday, setting off a political firestorm between those looking to make political hay out against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and critics of the “irresponsible” leak.

The controversy continued over the weekend, with politicians crossing partisan lines to support or reject the report.

On Friday, the report’s author, Joseph Shapira, called for an investigation into the leak which revealed the secret document’s key findings. The report, which was made available to Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot in February, is expected to be released to the public in the near future.

Officials close to the Prime Minister blasted the leak and the ensuing media circus, saying that the document had been grossly misrepresented, adding that the final draft had yet to be written.

“There are no similarities between what was reported by the press and what’s written in the draft. The draft will also surely change before the final report is released, after responses are received,” an official told Yediot Ahronot.

Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytnu) jumped on the leaked report, claiming that it validated his long-running assertion that Netanyahu was failing in his handling of the Hamas terror threat.

"The current government of the State of Israel, headed by Ya'alon and Netanyahu, is a leadership which runs away from responsibility, and cannot guarantee the security of Israeli citizens," he fumed.

"Beyond the failure to lead during the operation, which I warned them about in real time, the response of the PM - who himself made sure [Shapira] was elected by force - demonstrates that Netanyahu is once again expert at pinning responsibility on others."

But some senior officials appeared to reject the report altogether. Speaking on condition anonymity, some officials disparaged both the report and its author as being “not serious”.

MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) defended the report and accused the Prime Minister’s supporters of obscuring the issue.

“Instead of defeating the comptroller, who is a very serious man, they should work on defeating Hamas.”

Even some senior Likud members took the opportunity to criticize Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war.

Former Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who quit politics shortly after the operation ended, blasted the security cabinet’s handling of the war, calling it a “failure”, and attacked those seeking to delegitimize the report and its author.

"The '50 day campaign' in the summer of 2014 was a failure for Israel. I said these things in real time as a member of the government. The way to fix failings is not to attack the criticism."

"We must learn from mistakes and failings. Denying reality is not a good way to go."

Some in the opposition also crossed partisan lines to criticize the leak and the use of the report for explicitly political purposes.

MK Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), blasted those who “forgot the report’s true purpose” and instead sought to use the leak to score political points.

Others gave a mixed response, chastising both those responsible for the leak and the government’s handling of the 2014 conflict.

Calling the leak “a grave issue”, Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelah nevertheless acknowledged that the report’s criticism of the state’s top brass was valid.

“Israel was unprepared to a war that it saw was in the making for years, it had no plan or goals, and the IDF was not properly prepared.”