"Before denouncing what we are doing in Jenin these days, let us remember the 28 Israelis who were killed in the last few months in terror attacks, including three sets of brothers and sisters," opposition leader and Yesh Atid party chairman MK Yair Lapid said on Monday ahead of his party's weekly meeting.
"Our children are being slaughtered, and Israel has every right on earth to defend itself, and we from the opposition support the Israeli defense forces and the Israeli government on this matter," Lapid said.
Lapid said these remarks in English as a message to an international audience.
The opposition leader stressed that the operation's purpose was not to "strike and additionally harm the Palestinian Authority. Lapid said that as prime minister in 2022, he had acted on the premise that "Israel has no interest in bringing down the Palestinian Authority, but rather to strengthen it."
"However, If the authority does not want us to act in its terror, it must act with force to prevent terror organizations," Lapid said.
National Unity chair MK Benny Gantz said ahead of his party's weekly meeting that National Unity would support any "responsible" security operations.
"Instead of dealing with the dismantling of democracy and a unilateral coup, Netanyahu should stop, deal with the big challenges, and quit surrendering to petty politics. He must act with the responsibility that comes along with being Prime Minister," Gantz said.
The former defense minister also expressed his concern over the future of the IDF, after the current Defense Service Law that granted haredi yeshiva students' postponements and eventually exemptions from IDF service.
Gantz's concerns
"This week, when the conscription law expires and without any alternative to the continued existence of the nation’s army, I am worried about the future. We do not have the privilege of disbanding the IDF and Israeli society. We have no replacement within the structure known to us as Tzahal for those who are currently operating in Jenin or elsewhere. It is precisely on days like these that it is important that we remember this and act accordingly. It is precisely on these days that we must remember that democracy, unity and the connection that lives between each of us - they are what guarantee our future," Gantz said.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman ahead of his party meeting criticized the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not convene the National Security Cabinet (NSC) ahead of the operation, reportedly due to the fact that he does not want National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), who are both members of the NSC, to be part of security decision making.
Hadash-Ta'al's leaders MK Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi criticized the other parties for what it claimed was an operation whose eventual purpose is to fortify control over territories that should in the future be part of a Palestinian state.
Odeh argued in the Knesset plenum later on Monday that there was "no democracy with an occupation," and that the only way to reach a lasting peace in the region was for a Palestinian state to form alongside Israel.
None of the coalition party leaders press conferences ahead of their meetings. The Likud meeting was cancelled due to the operation.