Lapid with firefighters in the Gaza Belt region
Lapid with firefighters in the Gaza Belt regionSpokesperson

Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid, who served as a member of the Political-Security Cabinet during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, said on Tuesday that Israel should take a tougher approach against Hamas in Gaza.

"If there are Qassams on Sderot, the leaders of Hamas have to suffer. The IDF's toolbox has to be expanded significantly. I am in favor of using broad force and there is no need to remove the targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders from the IDF's toolbox," Lapid said in an interview on Radio Darom.

He explained that "in the end we have no interest in creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are not to blame for it - only Hamas is to blame. But the fact that we are not the ones responsible does not mean we do not have to deal with the consequences."

"Every day there are about one hundred thousand liters of Gazan sewage that flow to the sea in Gaza and from there to the shores of Ashkelon and into the desalination facility in Ashkelon. The desalination has already been stopped several times to clear the filters from the Gaza sewage. This proves that the crisis is ours too. Should there be an epidemic in Gaza, it will eventually reach Israel as well," continued Lapid.

"The government's responsibility is to do something about it. It did not do anything. The result is kites, balloons and burning fields," concluded Lapid.