BICOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced tough questions yesterday from Knesset members examining the State Comptroller’s report on Operation Protective Edge. He was also criticised by bereaved parents whose sons were killed in the war.

Responding to criticism that he failed to present non-military options to the security Cabinet, the Prime Minister said there was “no alternative policy with Hamas.”

During the hearing, bereaved parents of soldiers who died during the operation criticised the government in a series of heated and emotive exchanges.

Leah Goldin, whose son Hadar’s remains are still held by Hamas along with those of fellow soldier Oron Shaul said: “My son went from a soldier and a hero to a debt of a body, shame on you. You’ve turned us bereaved families into enemies of the people.”

Likud MKs David Bitan and Miki Zohar shouted back at the parents with statements that they were exaggerating, with Bitan branding one parent “a liar”.

According to Israel’s Channel 2 news, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a rebuke to Bitan and Zohar after they got into arguments with the families of fallen soldiers at the Knesset. The statement said they behaved in an “unnecessary” fashion and “harmed attempts” to involve bereaved parents in a public debate about the Government’s management of the 2014 Gaza war.

The long awaited report by State Comptroller Yossi Shapira examining Operation Protective Edge was published in February 2017. It concluded that a series of mistakes were made in the decision making process of the security cabinet. The report said that Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon failed to present non-military options on the situation in Gaza and Ministers lacked intelligence regarding the tunnel threat, often rubber stamping military plans presented to them.