Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Blue and White chairman MK Benny Gantz on social media on Sunday, claiming that with the establishment of the Bennett-Lapid government, the transfer of funds to the Gaza Strip was resumed and increased.
Netanyahu posted archived screenshots and argued that Bennett and Gantz were responsible for restoring and doubling the financial transfers to Gaza. “Benny Gantz and Naftali Bennett have a problem - and it’s called the archive," Netanyahu wrote on his social media accounts. He claimed that he had halted the Qatari cash transfers, but that once the Bennett-Lapid government was formed, the two reinstated the payments and even expanded them.
According to Netanyahu, Bennett and Gantz also allowed for the first time since Operation Protective Edge the entry of 20,000 Gazan workers, the import of new vehicles, and trade in gold and silver. Netanyahu dismissed the focus on the Qatari funds as a “spin," arguing that it represented only one percent of the total funds that reached Hamas.
Gantz fired back with a screenshot of his own, showing a news report published just weeks before the October 7 attack that described the renewal of the entry of Gazan workers under Netanyahu’s government.
Gantz criticized the Prime Minister’s conduct and wrote: “Netanyahu, if we’re opening archives - then let’s remember who insisted on stopping the cash and who was the one who brought it in. Who wanted to increase the worker quotas weeks before October 7 and begged his complicated friend Qatar to increase the grant to the Strip on the eve of 7.10."
In his response, he accused Netanyahu of evading responsibility and conducting “perception operations" at the public’s expense. He concluded by calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry:
“We all have lessons to learn - but only you are fleeing responsibility. Establish a state commission of inquiry that will truly review all the protocols. Enough with the perception campaigns you are conducting at the expense of Israel’s citizens."