With Gaza reeling from Israeli airstrikes that claimed the lives of nearly 100 Palestinians after an October ceasefire, opposition leader Yair Lapid issued a scathing indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, accusing them of sabotaging a fragile ceasefire and inadvertently strengthening Palestinian resolve with an erratic aid operation.
In a scathing post on X on Monday, Lapid lamented that “the government has brought the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological partners Turkey and Qatar into Gaza,” branding the move a “failed” fiasco lacking “any vision.”
Lapid wrote that the chaos in Gaza stems from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “government of extremists and neglect,” which opposition leaders say has far less credibility than US President Donald Trump’s so-called 20-point peace blueprint.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has turned us into a protectorate with his own hands,” enraged Lapid, who ordered security from foreign forces.
He denounced the “stop-start” aid cycle as “not serious…lacking strategy” and said it would only “hurt” Israel.
Many critics point to Netanyahu’s record of failures: the Oct. 7 intelligence failure, stalled efforts to secure the release of prisoners, and the long-running Gaza campaign that resulted in widespread destruction as Israel’s diplomatic isolation deepens.
Gaza’s plight highlights decades of blockade and dispossession, with more than 2 million Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, including tens of thousands of women and children, enduring conditions in what human rights groups describe as the world’s largest open-air prison, even as Israeli military operations since October 2023 have killed more than 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
The Palestinian resistance group, led by Hamas, claims to be the central force opposing the occupation and describes its actions as rooted in self-defense and the pursuit of justice dating back to the 1948 Nakba.
At the same time, global solidarity with the Palestinian cause continues to grow, with calls for an end to the siege of Gaza, formal recognition of a Palestinian state, and accountability for the destruction. Supporters emphasize the resilience of the people, whose resolve has not been dampened by bombings.