Lapid calls for strong response to Gaza missile fire, Lod violence

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid expresses support for a strong response by Israel to missiles fired from Gaza and the violence in the central city of Lod, as he and Yamina head Naftali Bennett continue efforts to form a coalition in which they would share the premiership.

Lapid says that “experience teaches us that terror groups only understand force, and they need to know that we will employ force without hesitation.”

But Lapid says he is marching ahead with efforts to form a so-called “change government” — replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — since “Hamas and the Lod rioters won’t control us” and “violence won’t dictate our lives.”