Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key rival, Benny Gantz, announced Sunday that he is quitting the war Cabinet after a postwar plan for the Palestinian enclave failed to materialize.
Gantz’ resignation comes amid global condemnation of the Palestinian civilian death toll in the war on Gaza that has piled domestic and international pressure on Netanyahu.
Gantz announced his resignation in a televised event on Sunday.
In May, Gantz demanded that Netanyahu agree to a day-after plan for the war in Gaza and threatened to withdraw his National Unity party from the coalition on June 8 unless the prime minister had a plan for the enclave’s postwar governance.
Netanyahu missed the Gantz’ deadline after distancing himself from President Joe Biden’s cease-fire deal, presented last month as an Israeli proposal.
On Saturday, Netanyahu called on Gantz to remain in the coalition, saying, “This is the time for unity and not for division.”
“We must remain united within ourselves in the face of the great tasks before us,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X. “I call on Benny Gantz — do not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity.”
Widespread condemnation of the civilian death toll in the war on Gaza has escalated in recent weeks after dozens of people were killed in Rafah in an area where displaced civilians were sheltering in tents. On Saturday, an Israeli attack on central Gaza that rescued four hostages also killed over 270 Palestinians, bringing Gaza’s death toll to more than 37,000 since the start of the war last October, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
A U.N. top court has already ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, and the latest round of civilian casualties, including two attacks on U.N.-run schools in the Nuseirat and Shati refugee camps, will only deepen hostilities between it and Israel.
The U.N. added both Israel and Hamas to a global blacklist of states and armed groups that harm children during wartime. Last month, the U.N. said at least 7,797 children had been killed in Gaza. Netanyahu slammed the decision, saying the U.N. had “added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers,” and repeated his claim that the Israeli military was the “most moral army in the world.”
In May, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said he was seeking arrest warrants for both Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders.
While Netanyahu’s government can survive if Gantz resigns, Netanyahu will be left further isolated in Israel and forced to rely on support from the far-right members of his government, leaving hopes for Biden’s proposal hanging by a thread.
Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister and chairman of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, said on X las week that he would “not be part of a government that agrees to the proposed outline and ends the war without destroying Hamas.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister and leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party, called the proposal “a victory for terrorism” that would mean “absolute defeat,” and threatened on X “to dissolve the government” should Netanyahu agree to the proposal.
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