Opposition leaders urge Netanyahu to resolve Gaza crisis

Opposition leaders are urging the Israeli government to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and prevent another round of fighting between Israel and the Hamas-led enclave.

“The State of Israel cannot permit itself to continue to ignore this crisis,” says Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid at his weekly faction meeting in the Knesset. “Not on a humanitarian level, and not on a security level.”

“The State of Israel cannot stand by while children’s wards in hospitals are disconnected from electricity,” he says. “This is against everything we believe in.”

He says the Hamas terrorist group is still “deterred” by the 2014 Gaza war, “but if we don’t do something, we are on our way to another round of violence.”

Like IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Lapid urges Israel to condition the full rehabilitation of the Strip on the return of the bodies of two IDF soldiers held in the enclave and the release of Israelis captive there. But Israel must take immediate rehabilitation steps to thwart another conflict, he adds.

Speaking at the Zionist Union faction meeting, party leader Avi Gabbay similarly implores Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to heed Eisenkot’s advice on Gaza, as well as that of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

“They know what’s going on there and what must be done,” he says. “They don’t have political considerations and aren’t afraid of how things will look on the news.”

— Marissa Newman