Former prime minister Naftali Bennett urged a comprehensive deal to bring home all hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza in an interview broadcast Saturday, sharply criticizing the government’s handling of the war and urging it to focus on returning the abductees, ending the war, deploying the army along the Strip’s perimeter, and deferring full defeat of Hamas to the next government.

In a pre-recorded interview aired on Channel 12 news — his first with Israeli media since his leadership tenure ended — Bennett, seen as a key rival to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next election, also praised Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, which ended earlier this week under US pressure, while claiming credit for some of the key preparations that enabled it.

Defending his track record from his 2021–2022 premiership, Bennett asserted that plans had been underway at the time to assassinate Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders in Gaza  — but that these were abandoned “because Idit Silman toppled the government,” referring to the Yamina party lawmaker whose defection caused his fragile, diverse coalition to collapse in mid-2022.

“We talked about decapitating them and all the leadership of Hamas,” he said, stressing that this was not because he foresaw the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023 — on the contrary, he admitted he hadn’t foreseen it — but due to warnings from security chiefs about a potential multifront conflict related to tensions surrounding Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount holy site. Fearing that this would ignite the region, he sought to take the initiative against Hamas.

When asked if the October 7 attack — which was planned by the Palestinian terror group for years while deceiving Israel’s military and successive governments — could have occurred under his leadership, he simply responded: “[October 7] took place on Netanyahu’s watch. That’s the fact.” He emphasized his “zero tolerance” for Hamas attacks, stating: “I didn’t let them get close to the fence.”

The 2023 Hamas-led invasion and attack saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, sparking the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and........

© The Times of Israel