NEW YORK, October 12. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to leave his post soon after the end of the conflict with the radical Hamas movement, Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said, citing an unnamed "veteran of Israel’s national security apparatus with inside knowledge."

According to Hersh’s source, Netanyahu "is finished. He is a walking dead man. He will stay in office only until the shooting stops… Maybe another month or two."

The source also said that it was Netanyahu himself who gave Hamas a foothold in Gaza. The Israeli security official revealed that Qatar allegedly sent "hundreds of millions" of dollars to the radicals with Israel's approval because Netanyahu believed it would be easier for him to control Hamas than the Palestinian Authority.

According to Hersh, "the attack by Hamas was a direct result" of Netanyahu's decision to allow the traditional Jewish holiday of Sukkot to be celebrated in the West Bank, despite protests from the military leadership. The army's main forces were transferred to the West Bank to provide security for the holiday, leaving only one battalion instead of three on the Gaza border on October 7. According to Hersh's source, the attackers took advantage of this.