A former Israeli prime minister has said Benjamin Netanyahu should not remain the country's long-term leader after Hamas' unprecedented incursion.
In an interview with Sky News' Mark Austin, Ehud Barak said the attack was "shocking for everyone in the country".
"It is a barbaric and murderous act that is reminiscent of operations similar to Al Qaeda or Daesh, something unprecedented.
"It was the hardest blow Israel suffered since the day of its creation," he stated.
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Asked whether Netanyahu could survive as prime minister in the long term, he said: "I think he shouldn't. I think in a normal place he would have resigned."
"Just seeing the kind of things that happened under his responsibility, even if he wasn't involved in any way, that put a lot of personal responsibility on him."
Barak, who was Israel's prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and is now the voice of the opposition, said the purpose of the Israeli response was "well defined," explaining: "It is to ensure that any military capabilities Hamas will be paralyzed and erased.
"No military cover, not a single rocket launcher, not a single magazine depot, not a single laboratory, not a single training site. And that is the purpose.
"Us [would have been] How lucky if it could have been completed from the air. [but] "It can't be achieved, so you have to come to the ground, so it is very likely that there will be a large-scale operation on the ground."
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When asked how Israel can avoid civilian casualties, Barak said: "Israel will not degenerate into the behavior of Hamas. We are committed to international law.
"[To] the population, we said that we were going to attack all Hamas assets. So any of you citizens of Loop Who knows if in your place of residence, in your place of work, there are any Hamas installations, Hamas assets now or in the last, let's say one or two years, be careful.
"This is a target. Get out of the area. Don't stay there. We're serious."
Discussing the blockade of Gaza, he said: "Israel will not allow people to die in the hospital in Gaza because we block some kind of medicine or anything that the hospital needs. No baby will die because there is no milk because of Israel."
A siren sounded midway through the interview, causing a momentary pause.
"Believe me, the missile will not land here," Barak said.
Asked whether his attempt to negotiate a peace deal in 2000 with Yasser Arafat, then Palestinian president, was a missed opportunity, Barak said: "You can't judge whether it's a missed opportunity. People tell me that you were so close, so close to Arafat: How come they didn't reach an agreement?
"I say that when you want to measure the size of a space, you have to multiply the width by the depth. We were probably very close, but very deep.
"I and [then US president Bill] Clinton put on the table a far-reaching proposal that metaphorically covered more than 90% of everything Arafat could dream of.
"The fact that he rejected it... And to this day, Clinton still, when asked, says that Arafat is responsible because we were very serious and he rejected it."
Then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak with US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the 1990s.
He said that "we are further away than we were 25 years ago" from genuine peace.
However, he added: "But I never lose eye contact with the target.
"The goal should be compromise with the Palestinians and the solution of a border within the Holy Land, where we have 80% of our settlers and all of Israel's strategic interests to live next to the Palestinian State, which [is] demilitarized but somewhat viable.
"That's the vision because we need it."
