«Gaza War Avoidable», «Israel» to be Blamed!

Local Editor

"Israeli" cabinet ministers said Monday that the "Israeli" entity could have avoided the 2014 Gaza war, which left more than 2,000 Gazans dead.

Joseph Shapira, the so-called "State Comptroller" criticized the "Israeli" entity's political and military leadership in the report over their conduct before and during the military aggression in the Gaza Strip during July-August of 2014.

The 51-day fighting claimed the lives of at least 2,251 Palestinians, according to the United Nations [UN].

According to the 200-page report, which stirred enormous public interest in the entity even ahead of its publication, the cabinet, Netanyahu, and the then-War Minister Moshe Ya'alon failed to hold a strategic discussion about Gaza. Only military actions to stop the rocket fire were considered.

The report shows that ministers acknowledged that a policy change to ease the distress of the residents of the besieged Palestinian enclave might decrease the hostility but failed to hold a thorough discussion on the issue and take actions.

The report said that policy steps could have averted the escalation.

"Israel" was dragged into ‘Protective Edge' and it wasn't our choice," one cabinet minister said, adding that "Different things could have been done that could have given us time to plan and have proper deliberations" if "Protective Edge" did not have to take place.

Shapira also accused Netanyahu and Ya'alon of keeping the apartheid regime in the dark about information gathered by the intelligence services over a large-scale operation planned by Hamas.

Netanyahu, Ya'alon, and the former chief of staff, Benny Gantz, are at the center of the report. They are accused of not correctly assessing the Hamas' rocket capabilities and not addressing the threat posed by cross-border tunnels built by the group.

These tunnels were one of the main reasons cited by "Israeli" officials for starting the aggression. At the end of the war, which was concluded with a US-brokered truce, the "Israeli" entity said it eradicated most of the tunnels.

However, earlier this week, an "Israeli" regime official told Channel 2 that 15 tunnels are believed to exist until today.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team