Investigative report says Yaalon tried to avoid launching attack on Hamas tunnels.

Arutz 7–Channel 2’s investigative news program, Uvda, has determined that Economics Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett repeatedly raised the subject of the tunnels at cabinet sessions in the summer, while Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon tried to avoid launching an operation against the tunnels. “If there is anything that a person who is familiar with the protocols of the cabinet sessions can see,” wrote Uvda’s editor and anchorwoman, Ilana Dayan, “it is that Minister Naftali Bennett demanded, again and again, to launch an operation against the tunnels, and he hears an answer that more or less repeats itself, from Defense Minister Yaalon: the tunnel threat is one we can live with, it need not be defined as a target, at least not in this round of fighting.”

Yaalon’s bureau did not deny the claim and said, “At the stage when [Yaalon] said those things, he thought that it was still right to strive for a ceasefire, and of course, be prepared for the possibility that we will have to go into the Strip.”

Uvda’s report fits in with similar findings by Haaretz last month. Bennett’s demand was initially raised on June 30, as reported by Amos Harel and Nili Cohen. PM Binyamin Netanyhau eventually disclosed that Hamas was planning a massacre on Rosh Hashanna. The realization of these plans was averted by the IDF ground operation that destroyed the tunnels leading into Israel.