Israel: Tensions escalate between Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz
The tension has rose recently between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the State Camp party, Benny Gantz, after the latter accused Netanyahu with sabotaging the prisoner exchange deal negotiations with Hamas.
On Sunday, Gantz accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the deal negotiations.
In a televised speech, Gantz criticized Netanyahu’s conversations with foreign media outlets regarding the deal being formulated with Hamas.
He said, “We’re in sensitive days, life and death are truly controlled by the tongue”.
Gantz added, “As Netanyahu himself said just a week ago, the less we talk, the better, while the negotiators are working, Netanyahu is sabotaging the negotiations again”.
In response to these statements, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying, “Gantz the submissive, who demanded a halt to the war before entering Rafah, should not theorize to Netanyahu on how to eliminate Hamas and carry out the sacred mission of returning the kidnapped”.
“It’s no coincidence that after Gantz left the government for political reasons, the prime minister led a decisive blow against Hamas, destroyed Hezbollah, and acted directly against Iran,” he claimed.
For his part, Gantz responded in a new statement, saying, “Netanyahu, don’t be a coward, I was afraid of dismantling the coalition, and only thanks to Gantz’s insistence were we able to return more than 100 kidnapped here”.
He continued, “Thanks to Gantz, we carried out a ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip (on October 27, 2023), and he is also the one who began the campaign to return residents to the north on September 1, 2024”.
Gantz’s statement added, “Netanyahu, you previously ruined the opportunity to reach a deal to free the kidnapped for fear of collapsing the coalition, we won’t allow you to do that again while there is a real deal on the table”.
Gantz’s statements on Sunday morning came in response to an interview Netanyahu gave to The Wall Street Journal, in which he said, “I’ll not agree to end the war before eliminating Hamas, we won’t leave them in power in Gaza 50 kilometers from Tel Aviv, that won’t happen”.
