Opposition leaders lambasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday after a report revealed new details about the extent to which Israeli intelligence believed Qatari money was funding Hamas’s military wing prior to the October 7, 2023, onslaught, including an assessment that it accounted for as much as half of the wing’s entire budget.

The Yedioth Ahronoth investigation found that the prime minister was informed of this fact several times, but ignored the matter.

The outlet also reported that Egypt, too, had warned Netanyahu that Qatari funds were reaching Hamas’s military wing, and that Israeli intelligence had uncovered a separate, covert channel through which money from Qatari sources was being transferred directly to the terror group’s armed forces. According to the report, Netanyahu was also informed about that funding route.

The findings add new details to previous reports that Netanyahu was warned by Israeli security officials that money from Qatar, which his governments allowed into Gaza, was being diverted to Hamas’s military buildup.

Netanyahu’s office rejected the investigation as “a collection of recycled lies that have already been disproven in the past,” maintaining that Israel’s security chiefs had supported the Qatari grant because it was intended for humanitarian purposes and was expected to help maintain calm in Gaza.

Qatar also categorically denied the report, saying it had “never provided money to Hamas” and that its assistance was delivered to Palestinian civilians through mechanisms coordinated with Israel and international organizations.

“Any funding that may have reached Hamas outside these mechanisms had nothing to do with Qatar,” its International Media Office said, accusing Israeli political figures of seeking to make the Gulf state “a convenient scapegoat” ahead of Israel’s upcoming election.

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main election rival, said the disclosures further demonstrated the need for a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding October 7.

“The fact that almost three years after the worst disaster the country has ever known, new scandals and revelations are still emerging every day about the warnings Netanyahu received and his conduct before October 7, is a failure in itself,” Eisenkot said.

“There is no doubt about one thing: Netanyahu abandoned Israel’s security in the months before the massacre and ignored every warning sign and red flag,” he charged. “Through his conduct, he led Israel to the worst disaster in its........

© The Times of Israel