Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that when he was defense minister, more than 300 members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) were killed in three and a half minutes, criticizing the current performance of the Israeli government.
"When I was defense minister, more than 300 Hamas members were killed in three and a half minutes in an air force attack," Barak was quoted as saying by the Maariv daily on Friday.
Barak did not say when the attack would take place, but Palestinian medical sources said on December 27, 2008, that 225 Palestinians - including women, children and police - had been killed in Israeli shelling of Palestinian police compounds in Gaza.
Barak took over the Israeli Defense Ministry between 2007 and 2013.
Barak added that he participated in another operation that resulted in the death of only one person, "but he was chief of staff of Hamas at the time."
Barak did not specify the intended operation, but on November 14, 2012, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas military wing) Ahmad al-Jaabari was killed by Israeli shelling of his car in Gaza.
This is the first time Barak has taken responsibility for these two operations.
Barak criticized the performance of the current Israeli government in dealing with Gaza, and said that its president Benjamin Netanyahu surrenders to all the whims of Hamas, and collapses under fire, which is unreasonable.
Barak said Hamas must be hit, but the government must develop a strategy, considering that the ongoing differences in the Israeli cabinet on a small military strike on Gaza child fights, adding that the real problem is that there is no strategy in the government.
The Israeli government is witnessing differences in how to deal with the situation in Gaza, in light of its refusal to lift the siege on the sector.