Former Prime Minister and chairman of the 'Yahad' party Yair Lapid said Sunday evening that he is receiving messages from soldiers and officers in Lebanon who report that the political echelon is preventing them from firing at militants. Lapid claimed troops are barred from shooting at terrorists and that full firepower is not being deployed to protect soldiers when evacuating casualties. He called on Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz to step down if they cannot allow troops to defend themselves.
Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yahad) sharply criticized the government's handling of rules of engagement for Israeli troops operating in Lebanon, in remarks posted Sunday evening.
Lapid claimed he is receiving direct messages from soldiers and officers on the ground who say the political level is deliberately restricting their ability to engage enemy targets. "When they see a terrorist, they are not allowed to shoot," he said, adding that even during casualty evacuations, the full defensive fire envelope available to the IDF is not activated to safeguard troops.
"There is no such thing as sending IDF soldiers — our sons — against the enemy with their hands tied," Lapid wrote. He directly addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz: "If you are unable to let our soldiers defend themselves, get out! We will know how to do it."
Lapid's intervention follows a series of similar criticisms by retired commentator and former military figure Hillel Bitton Rosen, who has been campaigning for weeks against what he calls excessively restrictive rules of engagement (as The Zioneer reported at length). The Biden-era Firebase incident — in which several Israeli soldiers died after their unit was reportedly blocked from returning fire — remains a key rallying point for critics of Israel's operational posture on the Lebanese front.
The claims were made on a single-source basis through Lapid's official social media. No immediate official response from the Defense Ministry or the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has yet been reported. The event is developing; independent verification of the specific engagement constraints Lapid describes is pending.
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