Ministers point to leaks from the security cabinet

Political leaders exchanged allegations of leaks Monday against the media, opposition leaders accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of divulging information from the meetings of the powerful security cabinet during the 2014 war in the band from Gaza.

The charges were brought by government ministers over an exchange between the Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, and IDF Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, during a recent security cabinet meeting.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu announced half an hour ago that he does not believe in leaks. You [Netanyahu] have fled the cabinet in which I was sitting," Yair Lapid said. , leader of the Yesh Atid party, from the Knesset podium.

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"Come on, look [me] in the eyes here, this podium and tell me it's not true, I know and you know it's true." have fled the cabinet in which I was sitting during a military operation, "accused Lapid, who was finance minister and member of the security cabinet during the war against Hamas in 2014.

" And you come out of cabinet today like Israeli Citizens are threatened, "he added, referring to recent violence on the Gaza border

Netanyahu appeared to reprimand leader Yesh Atid at a faction meeting of his Likud party, claiming that "it is impossible to manage a cabinet with tweets and leaks, "referring to Lapid's penchant for social media

also drew Netanyahu's attention to r recent leaks and said the right-wing presentations by government ministers were leading the country to a "useless war" with Hamas.

"The government's leaks in recent days are a repeat of 2014 when we were led to a war that Netanyahu did not know how to handle," Gabbay said of the war, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge

Gabbay accused the leaks were coming from ministers "trying to win"

He said that Netanyahu, Defense Minister and Yisrael Beytenu President Avigdor Liberman and the leader of Jewish houses Naftali Bennett "was placing an internal battle on the leadership of the right" before the interests of the country

While refraining from blaming anyone, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon lamented the leaks and said he would support the efforts. </ P> <p> The leaks from the security firms were reported after Hadashot TV reported on Sunday a clash between Bennett and Eisenkot over the response to the launch of incendiary devices from Gaza to Israel. l. According to the report, Eisenkot rebuffed Bennett's call to directly target Palestinians who stole kites and balloons, saying it would be immoral to use lethal fire against them.

Joining the fray, Liberman decried on Monday at the Ynet news site what he called

Bennett's Jewish party criticized Liberman as "weak, embarrbaded and transparent" in response.

The party also asked Netanyahu to submit the ministers to a polygraph test on leaks.

Amid the exchange between ministers Bennett tried to minimize any tension with Eisenkot, calling the IDF Chief of Staff "excellent."

Bennett however indicated that he did not want to back down regarding the army's response to airborne incendiary attacks.

"The chief of staff is supposed to perform [commands] he is not a mediator," Bennett told Hadashot news.

The government and the army were under intense internal pressure to intensify their response to fiery balloons and kites, which consisted mainly of firing warning shots. on the cells that launched the gears. Some southerners have adopted the slogan "Treat kites as rockets."

Kites and balloons, some of which are trapped with explosives, have wreaked havoc on Israeli communities around the Strip. from Gaza. April, causing fires that burned more than 7,000 acres of land and caused millions of shekels of damage

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.