image source, Getty Images
- author, Christy Cooney
- role, bbc news
-
Israel's war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, has threatened to resign if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not come up with a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip.
Gantz set a June 8 deadline for his plan to achieve six “strategic objectives”, including ending Hamas' rule in Gaza and establishing a multinational civilian government in the region.
“If we put the nation before the individual, we will find partners in the struggle among us,” he said. “But if you choose the path of fanaticism and lead the entire country into the abyss, we will be forced to quit our government.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the statement as a “common phrase” that meant “Israel's defeat.”
The widening rift comes as fighting intensifies on both ends of the Gaza Strip, with Israeli forces taking control of the southern city of Rafah and northern towns in one of Gaza's historic refugee camps, areas that Israeli troops had previously announced they had vacated. It is active in Jabalia. Hamas fighter.
Days after Gantz spoke, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another wartime cabinet member, urged Netanyahu to publicly state that Israel had no plans to take over civilian or military control of Gaza.
Gallant said he raised the issue repeatedly over several months but received no response.
He and Gantz argue that maintaining military control in Gaza increases Israel's security risks, while others, including far-right members of Netanyahu's ruling party, argue that maintaining military control in Gaza poses a continued threat to defeating Hamas. I believe that it is necessary to have some kind of control.
In a televised address on Saturday, Gantz told Netanyahu: “The Israeli people are watching you.”
“We must choose between Zionism and cynicism, between unity and faction, between responsibility and lawlessness, between victory and disaster,” he said.
Among his six strategic goals are the return of all Israeli and foreign hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza and the return of all displaced Palestinian civilians by September 1. This included returning to northern Gaza.
He also said Israel should continue to seek normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia as part of a “comprehensive process to build an alliance with the free world and the West against Iran and its allies.” Ta.
In response to the speech, Prime Minister Netanyahu said meeting Gantz's demands would lead to “an end to the war and the defeat of Israel, the release of most of the hostages, leaving Hamas intact and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Israel's war cabinet was formed after Hamas attacked an Israeli community near Gaza on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry announced that 35,386 people have been killed in Israel's military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli media reports, the country's military chief of staff, Helzi Halevi, also privately pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the need for a “next day” strategy.
The return of Israeli troops to areas in northern Gaza, including Jabalia, which had been declared free of Hamas, raises questions about the government's strategy to eliminate Hamas.
Halevi is said to have argued that without a diplomatic process to establish a governing structure other than Hamas, the military would be forced to carry out repeated operations to stop Hamas.
Gantz proposed establishing an American, European, Arab, and Palestinian administration that could control Gaza's civilian administration while laying the foundations for a future alternative government.
He added that Israel could maintain some “security control” in the meantime.
In Jabalia, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had engaged in battles with Palestinian armed groups. Palestinian doctors said 15 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Hamas said Israel's “brutal attack” on Jabalia left dozens of civilians dead and hundreds more injured.
Late Saturday, Israel also issued a new evacuation order for parts of northern Gaza, saying militants fired rockets into the territory.
Israel last week opened fire in the southern city of Rafah, where civilians from other parts of the Gaza Strip had been told to evacuate in advance because they needed to enter the city to attack Hamas' last remaining stronghold. The operation began.
On Saturday, it launched airstrikes and raids on targets in the eastern part of the city.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said some 800,000 Palestinians have now left Rafah and taken refuge in the devastated city of Khan Younis and along the coast.
“Since the war in Gaza began, Palestinians have been forced to flee many times in search of safety, but never found it,” he said.
“When people move, they are exposed to unprotected conditions, without safe passage or protection. They are forced to leave their meager possessions behind, unable to pay for it.
“Claims that the people of Gaza can be moved to 'safe' or 'humanitarian' areas are false. Every time they do so, civilian lives are put at grave risk.”
President Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is scheduled to visit Israel on Sunday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Biden administration is against Israel's full-scale attack on Rafah in the absence of a plan to protect civilians. is expected to reiterate its stance of opposition.
Sullivan is meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi state media said they discussed ways to increase aid supplies to Gaza and how to achieve a Palestinian state.
