In meeting days before Oct. 7, Netanyahu sought to maintain quiet with Hamas – report |
Less than a week before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his top advisers and security chiefs to maintain the status quo that saw the terror group received economic incentives to maintain quiet, Channel 12 reported Sunday.
The report came days after Netanyahu released a 55-page document with select quotations from cabinet meetings in the years leading up to October 7, which painted a picture in which the premier ostensibly pushed for aggressive policies against Hamas, while his current political rivals and security chiefs urged long-term deals with the terror group and blocked the assassinations of its leaders.
Netanyahu omitted the October 1, 2023, meeting from his answers to the state comptroller’s inquiry into October 7 that he released on Thursday night.
“The prime minister expressed great appreciation to all the security services on their activities to maintain the quiet on all fronts,” reads the leaked summary from the protocol of that meeting, “with an emphasis on the holidays, and stresses that we must act with moderation in order to cool down the fronts and avoid escalation…”
In the meeting, according to the network, the security chiefs recommended that Israel move toward assassinating Hamas leaders. However, Netanyahu........