Israel’s Gantz demands Gaza plan by June 8; threatens to quit cabinet
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to an agreed vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after the war with Hamas.
In a news conference, Gantz said he wanted the war cabinet to form a six-point plan by June 8. If his expectations are not met, Gantz said, he would withdraw his centrist party from the conservative prime minister’s emergency government.
Captives’ families urge action after Gantz ultimatum speech
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz presented Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu with a June 8 deadline to agree on a Gaza vision, but the families of captives held in the enclave say “the time for talk is over”.
“The only relevant ultimatum this evening is that time is running out for the hostages. The time has come for action — to renew negotiations for their immediate return,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
But broad splits have emerged in the Israeli war cabinet in recent days after Hamas fighters regrouped in northern Gaza, an area where Israel previously said the group had been “dismantled”.
Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.
Israeli minister hits out at Gantz following Gaza plan deadline
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called Gantz a “big deceiver”. “His trips to Washington for talks against the prime minister’s position were only a small part of his subversion,” Ben-Gvir said in a post on X.
“The man who hosted Abu Mazen [Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas] in his home, brought in workers from Gaza, led the gas surrender agreement with Lebanon, removed essential security barriers in the US, and endangered Golani’s soldiers ‘out of concern for the Palestinians’ is the last one who can offer security alternatives.”
What’s in the 6-point plan demanded by Israel’s Benny Gantz?
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz says if Prime Minister Netanyahu fails to agree on a plan before June 8 that includes these six tenets, he will break from his government and attempt to hold elections:
- Bringing back captives held in Gaza
- Topple Hamas, demilitarise the Gaza Strip, maintain “security control”
- Create an international administration of civil affairs that includes Palestinian, Arab and Western elements
- Facilitate the return of civilians to northern Gaza by September 1
- Advance “normalisation” with Saudi Arabia to build up alliances against Iran and its allies across the region
- Adopt a framework for national military service to oversee all Israelis committing to mandatory service
Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu are going head to head again, this time as the fate of the war on Gaza hangs in the balance
Gantz’s conditions mean ‘defeat for Israel’, says Netanyahu
The Israeli prime minister says the conditions set out by Benny Gantz means “the end of the war, defeat for Israel, and the abandonment of most of the hostages – leaving Hamas intact and establishing a Palestinian state”, the Haaretz newspaper quotes Benjamin Netanyahu as saying.
