Opposition leader Yair Lapid issued a statement to the media on Monday evening regarding the ongoing war in Gaza, claiming that the military campaign “has spun out of control.”
Lapid criticized the IDF’s operations as repetitive and lacking decisive results, while the toll continues to mount.
“We are conquering Khan Yunis for the fourth time, Jabaliya for the third time,” he said. “Each time we leave, Hamas returns, booby-traps roads and houses, and waits for us to come back. The Israeli government no longer knows how to explain why soldiers continue to die in Gaza.”
He added, “If we don’t end the war now, the hostages won’t return, the IDF will continue to lose its best fighters, the humanitarian disaster will worsen, and the world will close its doors to Israelis. It doesn’t have to be this way. There is an alternative to what’s happening now.”
Education Minister Yoav Kisch sharply criticized Lapid’s comments: “Lapid, it’s deeply unfortunate that you chose to echo Hamas’s messages. If we listen to you and your friends and surrender, Hamas will regain control of Gaza, the blood of our soldiers will have been shed in vain, and the next massacre is only a matter of time. Instead of standing with the State of Israel, you chose to raise a white flag and serve the enemy. Shame on you.”
Minister May Golan added: “Yair Lapid, the propagandist of defeatism and the abandoner of the gas fields, is the face of the entire opposition - a verbatim echo of [Hamas spokesman] Abu Obaida’s talking points. What else will this former senior partner of the Muslim Brotherhood sell to save his party from the electoral threshold?”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also weighed in: “What are our soldiers in Gaza supposed to think when the opposition leader spits on their achievements and calls them a ‘complete disaster’? It took Lapid less than a month to join Liberman in slandering the IDF soldiers risking their lives on the battlefield. After thousands of strikes, eliminations, and the destruction of infrastructure, he demands we stop the war and leave Hamas on the fences just for a ‘time-out.’”
“He talks about a ‘comprehensive deal for everyone,’ but forgets to explain—what happens if Hamas deceives us again? Keeps hostages? Regains strength? This isn’t a ‘comprehensive deal’—it’s a complete surrender. This is not how you bring hostages back. This is how you lose a country.”