Hamas’ power increased due to ‘minister of leaks’, accuses Ya’alon

Former Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon has said that Hamas’s power increased due to the continuous leaks of the transcripts of the Israeli cabinet’s security discussions during the military offensive against Gaza in 2014, Safa news agency reported on Tuesday.

“Hamas had been deterred for two years [after the 2014 offensive], but the leaks by the ‘minister of leaks’ gave it more power,” Ya’alon wrote on Twitter. He included information reported by the Israeli Channel 2 TV wherein a spokesman for the Islamic movement’s military wing said, “Leaks prove our narrative that we won the battle.”

Insisting that the leaks had damaged Israeli security, Ya’alon accused Education Minister Naftali Bennett of being responsible for them. Speaking at the National Security Studies conference held in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Ya’alon hinted that Bennett had leaked the conversations of the security cabinet meetings “to get a few ‘likes’ on Facebook.”

The masked spokesman of Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu-Obaida said at a ceremony to unveil a statue honouring the Tunisian engineer credited with developing drones used by Hamas, “The results of the 2014 battle proves that the size of the Israeli losses, failure and confusion was bigger than what the Israelis announced.”

Ya’alon concluded by saying that the leaks will deter ministers from speaking their mind at future cabinet security meetings.