Likud minister claims Hamas ‘hatched’ Oct. 7 attack during Bennett-Lapid government

Zohar says Sinwar planned onslaught when he saw ‘weakness’; Bennett accuses government of campaign to ‘evade responsibility,’ promises state inquiry; Lapid: Government should be ‘ashamed’

Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar on Sunday said the October 7, 2023, massacre was “hatched” by Hamas during the term of the short-lived government led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, which ended in late 2022.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in power when the invasion and massacre occurred, and in the months preceding it, and in fact has led Israel nearly uninterruptedly since 2009.

Zohar, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, acknowledged in a 103FM radio interview that the attack “happened on our watch.”

“But it was hatched during the previous watch of Bennett and Lapid as prime ministers,” he added. He claimed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar planned the attack under the previous government “the moment he saw [their] weakness.”

“After we came into government, all these arguments began over the judicial reform, and a very big rift was created in the nation, and that may have also been a significant trigger for Sinwar to attack Israel,” Zohar said, referring to the coalition’s controversial judicial overhaul legislation, which sparked nationwide protests in the year leading up to the massacre.

Zohar also said that despite the rifts, after the Hamas attack took place Israelis from across the political spectrum arose and managed to “beat their enemies.”

A Hamas memo from 2022, during the 18 months when the Bennett-Lapid government was in power, reportedly detailed plans for the massacre.

However, from as early as 2018, Netanyahu was reportedly warned several times about Hamas’s plans to invade Israel.

Last week, Bennett and Lapid, who built a diverse, multi-party coalition after the 2021 election, formed a joint slate called Together in a bid to unseat Netanyahu at the next election, scheduled to be held by the end of October.

In response to Zohar’s comments, Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021-22, accused the government of launching “another campaign to evade responsibility for the blood of those murdered on October 7.”

“It is yours, Netanyahu. And it is not AI,” Bennett said in a statement.

“You transferred suitcases of dollars to Hamas. You allowed the terror monster to grow on our border. You contained the rocket fire and the balloons. You surrendered to Hamas and Hezbollah. You employed consultants in your office during the war who received salaries from Qatar (!) and you continue to employ them even after the betrayal became known,” Bennett wrote on X.

The suspects in the Qatargate scandal, close Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich and former spokesman Eli Feldstein, are alleged to have worked for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, to have had contact with a foreign agent, and to have committed a series of corruption offenses involving lobbyists and businessmen, while in the premier’s employ.

“A government under my leadership will establish a state commission of inquiry to investigate the failure [that enabled] the massacre,” Bennett wrote.

Netanyahu’s government has steadfastly refused to establish a state commission of inquiry, the only available independent public forum with investigative powers, into the October 7 disaster.

It first argued that an investigation could not begin while the country was still at war, but then later claimed that a state commission would be biased against it due to what it alleges is the liberal bent of Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, who would appoint the members of the committee.

In response to Zohar’s comments, Lapid, who served as caretaker prime minister in the months leading up to the 2022 election as part of a rotation deal with Bennett, said, “Miki, you were a minister on October 7, Netanyahu was prime minister on October 7, Likud, Smotrich, and Otzma Yehudit held all the security roles on October 7.

“Twelve hundred were murdered on your watch. Hundreds kidnapped on your watch. Three years later, we wake up every morning to ‘cleared for publication’ on your watch,” Lapid said, referring to the October 7 death toll, and the phrase used for announcements on soldiers’ deaths.

“Thirty thousand Hamas armed operatives still control Gaza on your watch. You ignored each one of our warnings, every alert, and empowered Hamas as a policy and brought upon us the worst disaster for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Lapid added.

“At least do one thing, be ashamed,” he stated.

Under Netanyahu, Qatar provided tens of millions of dollars in cash to Gaza every month from 2018 until October 7. The payments were publicly encouraged by Netanyahu as a means to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Strip.

He has since denied that the money sent by Qatar to Gaza at Israel’s request was used to fund the October 7 attack, despite having reportedly been warned at least twice before the Hamas onslaught that the terror group’s military chief, Muhammad Deif, was appropriating funds.

Netanyahu has never acknowledged direct responsibility for the failures surrounding October 7 and has instead attempted to place the blame on others, including the security establishment.

Numerous reports and some top security officials have said publicly that Netanyahu and his government repeatedly rejected plans to kill senior Hamas leaders.