Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, following the resignation of the head of military intelligence for failing to predict the Hamas military operation on October 7, 2023.
Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, head of the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence Directorate, resigned early Monday for failing to predict the Hamas attack.
”The resignation of the head of military intelligence is justified and honorable. “It would have been appropriate for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the same,” Lapid wrote in X.
A poll showed on Sunday that two-thirds of Israelis do not believe Netanyahu’s claim that Israel is close to achieving an imminent victory in its ongoing war in Gaza for more than six months, according to Israeli Channel 13.
The survey also found that 63% of respondents support holding early elections, while 33% prefer to hold the vote as planned in October 2026.
Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 1. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
Since then, at least 34,150 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and another 77,000 have been injured amid massive destruction and severe shortages of essential items.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide before the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take steps to ensure humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.