Minister of Education Naftali Bennett on Tuesday attacked the IDF Spokesman, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, over his announcement following the explosion of a terror tunnel leading into Israel from the Gaza Street. Manelis announced that “there was no intention, at any stage, to harm this senior [Hamas] official or another,” referring to the eight terrorists who were killed and about a dozen injured under the rubble.
“We must not apologize for our success in eliminating terrorists,” Bennett Tweeted, “These are terrorists who were digging a hellish tunnel into Israeli territory, designed to kill Israeli women and children.”
Bennett agreed with the spokesman, however, that “we are not looking to escalate the situation,” but noted that as a member of the cabinet who has been leading the effort to thwart the tunnels’ threat since the [2014 Gaza war], I fully support the operation.”
“The purpose of the IDF is to defeat the enemy and that is how we must continue,” Bennett added.
National Union secretary-general Ophir Sofer also attacked the IDF Spokesperson and called for an urgent debate in the IDF General Staff following the announcement, “to investigate the strange apology.”
“Someone here got confused,” Sofer said in a statement, “The IDF blew up a tunnel through which terrorists were supposed to infiltrate Israeli territory and murder Jews – yet instead of congratulating the move, someone in the IDF chose to apologize.”
“Who among the members of the Cabinet is ready to sign on to such an announcement?” he asked, and called on the Defense Minister “to hold an urgent discussion of the army’s apology,” and on the cabinet members “to do everything in their power to kill more terrorists.”
In his statement on Monday, the IDF Spokesperson stressed that “most of those who were killed died [as a result] of the rescue operation carried out by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which used explosives, raising smoke and dust that affected [the people] inside the tunnel.”
“We did not use any unfamiliar or illegal means,” Brigadier General Manelis clarified.
Meanwhile, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, released a statement saying that “the blood of the martyrs would not be wasted, and that the Israeli occupation bears responsibility for the consequences of this aggressive escalation.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman stated that the tunnel “was a blatant violation of [Israel’s] sovereignty and all acceptable rules between self-respecting societies, countries and organizations.” He added that the tunnel “proves that despite the Palestinian reconciliation, the Gaza Strip remains a kingdom of terrorism. As far as we’re concerned, the responsibility [for the tunnel] is without a doubt that of Hamas, which rules Gaza.”