Demonstrators chant slogans and hold signs during a rally against Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his residence in the occupied al-Quds, on August 1, 2025. (Photo by AP)<\/p>\n
More than 680 days into Israel\u2019s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the regime\u2019s former military and political officials have warned that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is \u201cdragging Israel into the abyss\u201d after failing to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas.<\/strong><\/p>\n Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israeli occupation army, censured on Saturday Netanyahu\u2019s lack of leadership and admitted to the regime\u2019s defeat in the long-running war with Hamas in Gaza since October 2023.<\/p>\n “Netanyahu’s lack of leadership and refusal to make difficult decisions, out of personal and political considerations, are dragging Israel into the abyss,” Eisenkot said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-two months have passed since the October 7 failure. The war’s objectives have not yet been achieved, and our brothers are dying in Hamas tunnels.\u201d<\/p>\n The former military chief also called on Israeli settlers\u00a0to join a massive strike organized by the families of the captives on Sunday to pressure the regime into reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas.<\/p>\n Israeli media said a large-scale strike is expected on Sunday morning as families of the captives protest\u00a0Netanyahu\u2019s recent decision to expand the war in Gaza, rather than sign a deal to return those in captivity.<\/p>\n The organizers of the mass protest said nearly one million people were estimated to join the strike in Tel Aviv and tens of thousands of others in various locations across Israel.<\/p>\n The occupied territories have been the scene of widespread protests against Netanyahu and his war cabinet for scuttling a deal to bring back the captives, most of whom\u00a0have already been killed in Israel\u2019s indiscriminate and relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n In January, a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas led to the release of several captives and Palestinian abductees held illegally in Israeli jails.<\/p>\n However, the Israeli regime refused to extend the deal as initially planned, choosing instead to intensify its military assaults on Gaza by shattering the 2-month deal.<\/p>\n Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak also launched a fierce attack on Netanyahu on Saturday evening and said he \u201clies as naturally as he breathes.\u201d<\/p>\n Barak accused Netanyahu of no longer caring about the regime\u2019s security and focusing instead on his personal safety and political survival.<\/p>\n The former Israeli prime minister said Netanyahu is waging a \u201cfutile war\u201d aimed at evading his corruption trials and the crisis over the conscription law related to exemptions for ultra-Orthodox \u201cHaredim.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu, he also said, misled US President Donald Trump and his aides, convincing them that Israel had only two options: either surrender to Hamas or continue fighting until every one of its fighters was eliminated.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump understands nothing about military matters and relies entirely on Netanyahu,\u201d Barak said, adding that the Israeli prime minister managed to secure American approval to continue a \u201cpointless war.\u201d<\/p>\n Arguing that the ongoing war ultimately serves Hamas, Barak said, \u201cIsrael will sink deeper into the Gaza quagmire and will not be able to eliminate the movement this way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe may have disagreed with some past leaders, but they were neither cowards nor liars. Today we live under leadership that has completely lost its compass,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s war on Gaza has since October 7, 2023, claimed the lives of at least 61,897 people and wounded 155,660, most of them women and children.<\/p>\n Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.<\/p>\n The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt \u2013 in what has become Palestine\u2019s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.<\/p>\nNetanyahu \u2018lies as naturally as he breathes\u2019: Ex-PM<\/strong><\/h2>\n