i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Sunday after Sinwar gave a threatening speech a day earlier. Bennett also took the time to make a possible dig at former prime minister Bibi Netanyahu for allowing millions of dollars of Qatari cash to flow into the Gaza Strip.
“It seems to me that it is already quite clear at this stage that Hamas does not like this government. Maybe they miss the suitcases full of dollars, and maybe they just do not like the possibility of us all working together to better the living conditions of Arab Israeli citizens,” Bennett said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “This is the time that the masks come off and it is clear to everyone who wants what. That Hamas wants to overthrow our government, says it all. And in that, too, Sinwar must not be allowed to win,” Bennett said.
Israel allowed millions of Qatari cash to flow into Gaza in order to maintain a ceasefire with Hamas, a policy criticized severely by Bennett. He replaced it with a new aid distribution mechanism which involves the United Nations.
In his speech on Shabbos, Hamas’s Gaza leader Sinwar attacked Israel’s Islamist Ra’am party and its head Mansour Abbas, calling him a traitor.
“That you serve as a support to this government, which violates Al-Aqsa, is an unforgivable crime,” Sinwar said.
