In a discussion four days before the Israeli operation against Iran, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we are about to say that we defeated Hamas,” Channel 12 reports.
“We didn’t defeat anything,” Netanyahu responded. “They are holding 25% [of Gaza] and 20 hostages.”
According to the report, Zamir asked for a directive on what to prepare for in the next stage of the war in Gaza.
In a separate discussion before the Iran campaign, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich complained that Zamir had committed to moving Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian zones, but that had not happened.
Disagreements over the fight against Hamas took a backseat during the 12-day bombing campaign against Iran, but Netanyahu is holding a cabinet meeting tonight on the Gaza war, and pre-existing arguments are likely to re-emerge.
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