Ex-minister says PM must establish unity coalition

Shaked says international community must remember that ‘Hamas acted like Nazis’

Former justice minister calls on world to ‘express unwavering support for Israel’ in coming weeks, says attack on Saturday was ‘total failure of military, intelligence, government’

Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Then-outgoing interior minister Ayelet Shaked at a handover ceremony with then-incoming minister Aryeh Deri (unseen), at the Ministry of Interior Affairs in Jerusalem, January 1, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Then-outgoing interior minister Ayelet Shaked at a handover ceremony with then-incoming minister Aryeh Deri (unseen), at the Ministry of Interior Affairs in Jerusalem, January 1, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Former justice minister Ayelet Shaked said the Hamas terror group “acted like Nazis” in its brutal assault against Israel, and called for “unwavering support” for Israel from the international community — even as casualties are likely to mount in Gaza in the coming weeks.

Shaked, whose Bayit Yehudi party failed to enter the Knesset in the last election, also described Hamas’s invasion as “a total failure on a military and intelligence level, and of this government,” but said that the time to apportion blame should come only after the war.

“People have to understand, Hamas slaughtered small children and women. They burned entire families alive. We’re talking about barbaric people and child-killers, and Gazan residents are supporting them and are proud of them,” Shaked told The Times of Israel on Monday.

“Such people are war criminals themselves,” she added.

“They acted like Nazis and they need to pay for it and we need to it ensure it never happens again. We need to remind the international community that they massacred women and children and that no country that desires life would allow this to pass and that any country that desires life would act to ensure that it would never happen again,” she continued.

“So the international community needs to express unwavering support for Israel, even if they begin to see unpleasant pictures from Gaza.”

Bodies lie on a main road near Kibbutz Gevim on October 7, 2023 following an attack by Hamas terrorists. (Oren ZIV / AFP)

Shaked, who served as interior minister in the last government, said Israel needs to “eliminate Hamas” and destroy all its assets in Gaza, including through a ground operation, suggesting that reconquering and holding onto territory in the coastal enclave might also be necessary.

Addressing the political situation in the country, the ex-politician said Benny Gantz’s National Unity party and Yesh Atid should be brought into the government, and that Gantz’s demand for real influence in such a coalition was justified.

She added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to establish such a government thus far was “surprising,” noting the scale of the catastrophe wrought by Hamas’s attack.

“There is a total failure here, on a military and intelligence level, and of this government. Judgement will be given after this campaign, but now we need to win — and to win, it is important to have societal cohesion and to have people with experience involved,” Shaked insisted.

She added, however, that the Hamas assault had also led to “acts of unprecedented heroism” by security squads in the towns of the Gaza border region, by soldiers and by citizens who fought the terrorists.

“Such heroism, of citizens fighting with terrorists with their bare hands and single soldiers taking on and killing dozens of terrorists, has not been witnessed since the War of Independence,” she said.

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