Lapid says Israel will conduct war on Hamas regardless of international criticism

Before the rocket barrage that sent the Knesset plenum to shelters, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that Israel will forge ahead in its campaign against Hamas, even if it is subject to international criticism.

“It will take time, it will require the use of a lot of force. If the world doesn’t like it, let it not. It was not the children of the world who were murdered, our children were murdered,” Lapid tells the Knesset as the winter session opens.

The opposition leader, who says he will support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet from the sidelines, pledges that Israel will “uproot Hamas” because “it’s impossible to live next to a terror group.”

Arguing for the need to change reality for Israelis, especially those living in the Gaza border area, Lapid says that “our goal is not to end the war and go back [to the way we were]; our goal is to win the war and be better than we were.”

By doing so, the opposition leader says that elected officials will restore public trust, eroded in the aftermath of Hamas’s crushing surprise attack against Israel on October 7.

“Our goal is to restore trust between this house,” the Knesset, “and the citizens of Israel,” Lapid says.