In a television interview on the Israeli Channel 4, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched a violent attack on the current war government, and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to implement a deal to liberate Israeli prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance, and this is what makes us, as he stated, “We manipulate the lives of prisoners.”

Olmert pointed out that Netanyahu made a mistake when he set a goal for the war that could not be achieved, and stressed that "all the achievements achieved by the army do not come close to the declared goal, which is the complete destruction of the Hamas movement." Olmert accused Netanyahu that all he seeks "is internal conflicts and a loss of confidence in the Chief of Staff and Israel's security leadership."

Ehud Olmert said, in his interview, that Benjamin Netanyahu brought “barbarians into the cabinet, and this is unprecedented,” in reference to the religious right parties in “Israel,” so he returned and attacked “National Security Minister,” Itamar Ben Gvir, saying that “Ben Gvir is the enemy of Israel, and I believe that this group (referring to the parties of the religious right) wants the war in Gaza to be only a corridor for the war they want in the West Bank.”

He said, "The Israeli government must decide to stop the military battle at this stage in order to be able to return the prisoners."

In an interview with the Financial Times on October 12, Olmert stressed that what awaits Israeli soldiers is “everything you can imagine, and worse,” adding that the matter “will not be simple, and it will not be fun.” This is based on his previous experience in the aggression launched by his government in 2008 on the Gaza Strip, which lasted three weeks. He has had more than one call, since the start of the war, to stop it, before “Israel” pays more expensive prices. He also always stressed that it was not possible to recover the prisoners without an exchange agreement with the resistance in Gaza.