Israel’s Gantz expected to resign from government: Media

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz is expected to resign Sunday evening, according to Israeli media.

Last month, Gantz set June 8 as a deadline for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to draft a post-war plan in Gaza or he will leave the coalition. On Saturday, however, he delayed his planned press conference.

Gantz, a former defense minister, said early Sunday that he will give a statement to the media in the evening amid expectations that he will announce his resignation.

According to Israeli Army Radio, he will give his statement at 20:00 local time (1700GMT).

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper expected that Gantz and War Cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot would leave the coalition, citing their inability to sway decision-making.

Early Sunday, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Gantz to step down from the government.

On Saturday, Netanyahu asked Gantz to stay in the emergency unity government.

“I call on Benny Gantz - don't leave the emergency government. Don't give up on unity,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 84,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi