Benny Gantza member of the Israeli war cabinet, presented this Sunday his resigns over disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the post-war plan in Gaza, and despite the release of four hostages held in the Palestinian territory governed by Hamas. Ministers Gadi Eisenkot and Hili Tropper, members of Gantz’s same party, also submitted their letters of resignation to the emergency government, amid growing divisions in Israel over Netanyahu’s handling of the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“Don’t let our people be torn apart”
“Netanyahu prevents us from moving towards true victory. For this reason today we abandon the emergency government with a heavy heart,” he said. Gantz in an appearance that was to take place on Saturday, but was postponed after the rescue of four hostages in Gaza in a bombing operation that caused the death of at least 274 Palestinians. “I appeal to Netanyahu: set an agreed date for the elections. Don’t let our people be torn apart,” added the leader of the National Unity party.
Gantz appears as a favorite to form a coalition government if Netanyahu’s Executive falls and early elections will be called. This string of resignations does not put the government, a coalition that includes religious and ultranationalist parties, at risk, but it is a political blow for the prime minister, eight months after the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
About two weeks ago Gantz gave June 8 as the deadline for his party, National Unity, to leave the war cabinet if it failed to agree on a “comprehensive action plan” with six objectives: bring the hostages home, overthrow and demilitarize Hamas in Gaza, establish an alternative government in the Strip, ensure the return of residents on the northern border and forge normalization relations.
Jewish Power, the far-right party of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, announced that it will vote again with Netanyahu’s coalition in Parliament “as long as there is a reckless truce agreement on the table” and offered to replace Gantz as member of the war cabinet. Gantz, who before October 7 was on the opposition side, He was the only leader to agree to Netanyahu’s request to form a government of national unity and he obtained a position within the war cabinet, smaller than that of the government and with the right to vote.
“It’s time to join forces”
Minutes after Gantz announced his resignation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He reproached him that it is “time to join forces” and not to abandon the government due to differences over the management of the war in Gaza. Netanyahu recalled that The doors remain open to “any Zionist party” that wants to collaborate in the defeat of “enemies and guarantee security” of the citizens of Israel.
The extremist Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Finance portfolio, criticized Gantz’s decision as the “exact” response to what the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahia Sinwar, or the leader of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, are looking for. “There is no act less majestic than resigning from a government in time of war. When threats increase in the north, when hostages continue to die in Hamas tunnels and when tens of thousands of residents are “out of their homes” at the borders, Smotrich said in X.
The head of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, described Gantz’s action as “important and correct” and reiterated the need to create a “sensible government that will lead to the return of security to the citizens of Israel.” Shortly after Gantz, ministers without portfolio and observer members of the war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot and Hili Tropper, announced their joint resignation in a letter addressed to Netanyahu.
The rescue operation in Nuiserat
Following the release of four hostages in an operation that took place on Saturday in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, this Sunday Four members of a family were killed and others injured in an Israeli bombing who reached his home in the north of the Palestinian enclave. Witnesses also reported helicopter fire east of the Al Bureij refugee camp and artillery fire in Deir al Balah in the center and Rafah in the south.
After eight months of war, Netanyahu’s government reinforced its military strategy amid strong international and internal pressure for its management of the conflict. Pope Francis He urged that humanitarian aid be allowed access to Gaza and appealed to the international community to take urgent action. “Humanitarian aid must be able to reach those who need”Francisco said after several months of shortages of food, water, medicine or basic supplies in the Palestinian enclave.
The Pope reiterated his support “for the ongoing negotiations between the parties” to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. He also mentioned that next Tuesday “an international conference on the humanitarian situation in Gaza will be held in Jordan,” and thanked Jordan, Egypt and the UN for taking this initiative.
Saturday’s operation in Nuseirat involved the bombing of “89 inhabited houses and residential buildings”, which killed “64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people”, as revealed by the Communications Office of the Strip government. Additionally, among the injured were 153 children, 161 women and 54 elderly people. The rescue became the most important carried out by the armed forces since October 7, but it was also one of the most violent days in the devastated Palestinian enclave.
The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced this Sunday that three hostages, including one with American citizenship, died during the rescue operation. The group did not identify the dead or provide any details about their identities. An Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant Peter Lerner, denied that information. “This is just Hamas propaganda in their attempt to try to create concern in Israel,” Lerner told British channel Sky News.
The UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese was “relieved” by the release of the hostages, but regretted that it occurred “at the cost of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, and more than 400 wounded.”The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos attacked southern Israel and killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to a report by the AFP agency based on official Israeli data.
During that assault, the Islamist militants took 251 hostages, of which 116 are still held in Gaza, including 41 who were killed according to the Israeli Army. In response, Israel launched an air and ground offensive that has already killed at least 37,084 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of the territory governed by Hamas since 2007.
