📷Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. (Photo: Israeli army Spokesperson’s Unit photographer, via Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologize for recent comments he made in which he criticized the military for not putting enough pressure on Hamas to achieve progress in hostage talks, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that at a press conference on Saturday, Netanyahu maintained that he felt compelled to go ahead with the Rafah invasion “for the sake” of the negotiations since there had been “no progress” for months.
“For months there was no progress because the military pressure was not strong enough and I thought that, both for the sake of the hostage deal and for the sake of the victory over Hamas, we must enter Rafah,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
Israel launched a ground offensive on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 6, seizing control of the Philadelphi Corridor, including the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
‘Pressure’
The report, cited by the Anadolu news agency, also noted that military officials interpreted Netanyahu’s comments as implying he wanted action in Rafah, but senior army officers did not follow through, forcing him to pressure them.
During a meeting on Sunday that was also attended by the heads of Israel’s two main security agencies, the Shin Bet and Mossad, Halevi asked Netanyahu to apologize, Channel 12 reported.
Halevi reportedly said: “These words are serious. I demand that the prime minister apologize.”
However, Netanyahu has not apologized, according to the channel.
A military spokesperson who responded to a request for comment from the channel, said: “We do not address what is said in closed discussions.”
Officials in Netanyahu’s office said they were “unaware of such a statement in this security meeting.”
PM Rejects Criticism
The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu said during the press conference “If there is any progress, if there are changes in the (Hamas) position, it is because of the strong military pressure and the strong insistence on our conditions that is what is bringing about the changes.”
He further rejected “these briefs (against me) that I am delaying (a hostage deal), that I am toughening (my stance), that I am stopping a deal. It’s the absolute opposite.”
Since the start of the war on Gaza, disagreements between Netanyahu and military leaders have surfaced multiple times, especially regarding the responsibility for the Resistance operation on October 7 last year.
Staggering Death Toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,713 Palestinians have been killed, and 89,166 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety. | via The Palestine Chronicle
This article, Israeli Army Chief Demands Netanyahu’s Apology Over Remarks Critical of Military, was originally published in the Palestine Chronicle.
