Israeli Minister Benny Gantz addresses the media after his ultimatum to withdraw his centrist party from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government expired, in Ramat Gan, Israel on June 9.Nir Elias/Reuters
Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s three-man war Cabinet, announced his resignation Sunday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs.
The move does not immediately pose a threat to Mr. Netanyahu, who still controls a majority coalition in parliament. But the Israeli leader becomes more heavily reliant on his far-right allies.
Mr. Gantz said Mr. Netanyahu is “preventing true victory” and “making empty promises,” adding that the country needs to take a different direction as he expects the fighting to continue for years to come.
The popular former military chief joined Mr. Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in a show of unity. His presence also boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners. Mr. Gantz has good working relations with U.S. officials.
Mr. Gantz had previously said he would leave the government by June 8 if Mr. Netanyahu did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza.
He scrapped a planned news conference Saturday night after four Israeli hostages were dramatically rescued from Gaza earlier in the day in Israel’s largest such operation since the eight-month war began.
Mr. Gantz called for Israel to hold elections in the fall, and encouraged the third member of the war Cabinet, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, to “do the right thing” and resign from the government as well. Mr. Gallant has previously said he would resign if Israel chose to reoccupy Gaza, and encouraged the government to make plans for a Palestinian administration.
On Saturday, Mr. Netanyahu had urged Mr. Gantz not to leave the emergency wartime government.
“This is the time for unity, not for division,” he said, in a direct plea to Gantz.
Mr. Gantz’s decision to leave is largely “a symbolic move” owing to his frustration with Mr. Netanyahu, said Gideon Rahat, chairman of the political science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He noted it could further increase Mr. Netanyahu’s reliance on extremist, right-wing members of his government, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“I think the outside world, especially the United States, is not very happy about it, because they see Gantz and his party as the more responsible people within this government,” Prof. Rahat said.
The killing of 274 Palestinians, including children, in the raid that rescued four Israeli hostages showed the heavy cost of such operations.
The raid in Nuseirat, a built-up refugee camp dating to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, was the largest rescue since Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed across the border, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostage.
About half of the hostages were released in a weeklong ceasefire in November. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead.
In Gaza, medics described scenes of chaos after the raid. Overwhelmed hospitals were already struggling to treat the wounded from days of heavy Israeli strikes.
“We had the gamut of war wounds, trauma wounds, from amputations to eviscerations to trauma, to TBIs (traumatic brain injuries), fractures and, obviously, big burns,” said Karin Huster of Doctors Without Borders, which works in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. “Kids completely gray or white from the shock, burnt, screaming for their parents. Many of them are not screaming because they are in shock.”
The Israeli military said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the area,” and that a special forces officer was killed in the operation. It said rescuers had come under heavy fire, including from gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades, and the military responded with heavy force, including from aircraft.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz lashed out at critics of the operation in a post on X, saying “only Israel’s enemies complained about the casualties of Hamas terrorists and their accomplices.”
Inside Israel, local media have focused heavily on the Israeli toll, the hostages and military efforts with relatively little coverage of the situation for Palestinians inside Gaza.
Also Sunday, the commander of the Israeli military’s Gaza division resigned over failures that led to the Oct. 7 attack.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East this week, seeking a breakthrough in ceasefire efforts. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that mediators Egypt and Qatar had not received official word from Hamas on the proposed deal.
Saturday’s events also affected fragile attempts to deliver aid. The World Food Program chief said they suspended distribution around a U.S.-built pier off Gaza because “two of our warehouses, warehouse complex, were rocketed yesterday.” When asked how it happened and whether WFP shares its locations with Israel’s military, Cindy McCain said they did and “I don’t know. It’s a good question.” It wasn’t clear if she was referring to the rescue operation.
At least 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.