Cabinet minister denies Netanyahu, Liberman rift over Gaza

A senior cabinet minister Saturday denied a TV report that claims Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman are deeply divided over Israel’s response to violence from Gaza, and said Israel’s leadership was united in not wanting another war in the Hamas-run coastal enclave.

“In recent weeks we tried to make it clear that we are stepping up a gear in Gaza,” Channel 10 TV quoted Tzachi Hanegbi as telling a cultural event on Saturday.

“There are no question marks about launching a [major] new operation… Even the defense minister does not want us to launch an operation in Gaza,” he said, asserting that Hamas had been acting with relative caution over the past week.

“There are no differences of opinion between the prime minister and the defense minister,” he said, addressing reports Liberman was pushing for a harsher response and had clashed with Netanyahu.

A report on Hadashot news on Friday claimed serious disagreements exist between Netanyahu and Liberman over the correct Israeli response to events in Gaza, with the latter holding a more hawkish stance against  the Strip’s Hamas terrorist rulers.

Liberman reportedly told a recent faction meeting of the Yisrael Beytenu party that he had sought a severe strike on Hamas earlier this month, but was blocked by the premier. Netanyahu and Liberman are also at odds over policy going forward, both in the military response to Hamas and on the civilian humanitarian level, the TV report said.

The Prime Minister’s Office rejected the claim outright, calling it a “false, spurious report intended to drive a wedge between the prime minister and the defense minister.”

Hadashot news said it stood by the story. And Hebrew media on Saturday quoted anonymous sources close Netanyahu as saying that Liberman’s ostensibly tough stance was just an act designed to curry favor with voters.

Before becoming defense minister, Liberman famously proposed giving Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh a 48-hour ultimatum to return the bodies of two IDF soldiers, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, currently being held in Gaza, and if not — assassinate him.

Meanwhile, an opposition lawmaker on Saturday called on Netanyahu to resign, saying he had no clear police and was flip-flopping on a range of issues, from dealing with Hamas to LGBT rights.

“They pass harmful laws and declare them historic, but then within days say they actually meant to do something else,” said Yesh Atid lawmaker Ofer Shelah, referring in part to Israel’s nation-state bill and a law barring gay men from access to surrogates.

Hanegbi’s comments Saturday were a stark shift from last week when he warned, following the killing of a soldier, that Israel was preparing for a massive response on Gaza.

“Last week the air force carried out strikes that were described as the largest since Operation Protective Edge in 2014. We will look back at it after our response now and say it was a joke,” Hanegbi said. “The gloves are coming off.”

Hanegbi’s latest comments came following reports Friday that Netanyahu told senior cabinet ministers that a new initiative will soon be launched for a diplomatic solution in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu said during private conversations that the efforts, led by Egypt and the United Nations and with Israel’s cooperation, have made significant progress, Channel 10 news said.

A senior diplomatic official told the TV station: “Egypt and the UN are putting immense pressure on all sides. This is an unprecedented initiative, but it is still too early to say whether it will succeed. A lot is at stake.”

The plan was said to include rebuilding the enclave’s moribund civilian infrastructure, a return of the Palestinian Authority to the Strip, and a long-term ceasefire.

A minister who is a member of the high-level security cabinet said Israel was willing to push a civil initiative in Gaza. “There is such an intention and hopefully Netanyahu will bring it before the cabinet for approval.”

Another senior minister told Channel 10 the ball was in the Palestinians’ court, and much depended on the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to reassert its responsibilities in Gaza and Hamas’s willingness to halt the violence.

“As long as that doesn’t happen there’s nothing to discuss. We want a solution in Gaza, but we won’t be pushovers.”

The Israeli cabinet continues to monitor the difficult humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Channel 10 reported. During last week’s cabinet meeting ministers were told that due to Washington’s cuts in aid to the UN’s refugee agency in Gaza, there are no funds to pay teachers when the next school year begins in September. That could increase tensions and lead to a further escalation of violence.

The security establishment is examining ways to circumvent the US restrictions on UNRWA, and has suggested other means by which funds could reach teachers and schools.

On Friday Liberman warned Hamas not to resume rocket fire at Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, saying Israel could move to “the next level” in its response if peace is not maintained.

On a visit to Kibbutz Or HaNer, Liberman, referring to the name for warning sirens in the Gaza periphery, said: “If we get Color Red here, they’ll get deep red on the other side.”

The minister insisted that Jerusalem’s response to weeks and months of border violence, arson attacks, and rocket fire had been forceful.

He said the IDF had caused Hamas serious casualties and had rendered “significant harm to its most critical terror infrastructure — weapons manufacturing and storage facilities and training sites. We’re also heavily regulating Kerem Shalom [Gaza’s main goods crossing], so looking at everything that’s taken place I think the response has been strong.”

He implied that Israel did not want to escalate the situation in Gaza due to the need for vigilance on other fronts. “Do we need to go to the next level? It seems so,” he said. “But we have a responsibility to defend all the nation’s borders, to face all the threats at once and to maintain a normal life here and everywhere else.”

Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians during Friday’s violent protests at the border, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said. The ministry said the deceased were a 43-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy. Another youth died of his wounds on Saturday.

The IDF said around 7,000 Palestinians participated in violent riots in several locations along the border. Protesters hurled rocks and burned tires, and attacked troops with pipe bombs, a Molotov cocktail, and a grenade — all of which did not manage to clear the fence, and fell in Gazan territory.

Recent weeks have seen the most serious tensions with Hamas since the 2014 war.

The past week has seen the most intense escalation. It began with the death of an IDF soldier on the border last Friday at the hands of a Gazan sniper, which led to widespread Israeli airstrikes. UN mediator Nickolay Mladenov later said the sides had been “minutes from war” before a tacit ceasefire was reached.

A ceasefire was hurriedly agreed upon over the weekend and the following few days were relatively calm.