- This story is developing, there will be more to follow.
Israeli cabinet member Benny Gantz resigned from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, just weeks after threatening to do so over a possible ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Gantz, a minister without portfolio, accused Netanyahu in a televised statement of “preventing us from getting closer to true victory.”
Despite his harsh criticism of the Israeli prime minister, he added: “Leaving the government is a complex and painful decision.”
His statement today was delayed after Israel announced that the IDF had rescued four hostages from the Gaza Strip.
In May, he publicly gave Netanyahu a deadline of June 8 to come up with a clear plan by the next day on what to do with the Gaza Strip once the bloodiest conflict in the Middle East in decades came to an end.
Netanyahu yesterday called on Gantz not to resign, saying via a Telegram channel: “We must remain united within ourselves in the face of the great tasks ahead of us.” I call on Benny Gantz: do not abandon the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity.”
Benny Gantz (pictured) said in a televised statement: “Leaving government is a complex and painful decision.” Gantz, a minister without portfolio, said in a televised statement: “Leaving the government is a complex and painful decision.”
Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, saying he wanted to hand power to the people living in the enclave.
Gantz called for an international, Arab, and Palestinian administration to govern the Gaza Strip, and was joined at the time by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, saying he wanted to hand power to the people living in the enclave.
He added that he ruled out any such plans until Hamas was defeated and that he had long opposed the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu said after Gantz’s ultimatum in May that his political rival’s plan would amount to “the defeat of Israel, the abandonment of most of the hostages, the abandonment of Hamas intact and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Netanyahu added, however, that he still thought the emergency government was important to Israel’s war effort and that he “hopes Gantz will clarify his positions to the public.”
Gantz, leader of the Israel Resilience Party, which he founded in 2018, holds only six of the 120 total seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
But the centrist party has become a cornerstone of Netanyahu’s already precarious coalition government, which, including the IRP, controls 64, or just over half, of the seats.
Netanyahu may now have to rely on political support from ultranationalist parties remaining in government, whose leaders have angered Israel’s international allies with their extreme stances on what to do in the Gaza Strip.
Gantz announced he would join the war cabinet shortly after October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise raid on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, claiming he was putting aside political differences to help to his nation.
Hamas took about 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people.
About half were freed after a week-long ceasefire in November.
About 120 hostages remain and 43 of them have died.
At least 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
More to follow.