Lapid says he’ll back moves to free hostages, calls for Hamas leaders to be killed

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says he told the government that he would support any effort to return hostages from Gaza.

“We will give our full backing to any decision and any step, as well as to any price that will lead to the return of the hostages,” Lapid says at the start of Yesh Atid’s Knesset faction meeting.

“At the same time, we need to take painful steps to make sure they come home,” he adds, saying that the social contract between citizens and the state is “broken” until all the captives — Israeli and non-Israeli — are repatriated.

Lapid also calls on Israel to assassinate Hamas’s top leadership, specifically calling out six of its most senior political and military leaders. He says that Israel must reach them, “whether in Gaza or in other countries.”

Hamas’s top political leadership generally bases itself out of Qatar.

“The State of Israel must not stop and must not let go until we kill six people: Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, Saleh al-Arouri, Khaled Mashaal and Marwan Issa,” Lapid says.

“All six have to die. Until they die, Israel will not avenge the murdered of Be’eri and Sderot, Kfar Aza and Ofakim. Until they die, the Middle East will not understand that we are not messing around.”