Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz may announce his resignation today. It was announced yesterday that Gantz will hold a press conference on Saturday, and the Israeli media interpreted the announcement as a sign of Gantz's imminent departure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, writes Der Standard.
The former defense minister joined Netanyahu's cabinet after the attack by "Hamas" on October 7 as minister without portfolio. In mid-May, eight months after the war with "Hamas" began, Benny Gantz threatened to resign if the government did not present a post-war plan for Gaza by today, June 8.
According to opinion polls now, if the government collapses and early elections are held, Gantz would have a good chance of replacing Netanyahu as prime minister. Gantz's centrist bloc split in March and his party alone currently does not control enough seats in parliament to topple the ruling coalition.
Last week, however, Benny Gantz's party introduced a bill to dissolve parliament and called for new elections. Netanyahu dismissed Gantz's demands as "empty words", "whose meaning is clear: end the war and defeat for Israel, abandon most of the hostages, leave Hamas intact and create a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu is under increasing domestic political pressure: daily thousands demonstrate in Israeli cities in support of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the return of the hostages. On the other hand, Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners are threatening to destroy the coalition in the event of a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip.
For weeks, the government has been faced with the question of how Israel should deal with the Gaza Strip after it is done with the terrorist organization "Hamas". And the US administration has warned Israel's rulers that they need a clear and concrete plan for Gaza's future, with a potential power vacuum on the table that could be filled by chaos. Separately, Israel's closest allies, the USA, also admitted that the non-acceptance and failure to enter into force of the latest proposed cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip also has internal political reasons.
Early this morning, the Israeli military said it had neutralized a senior member of the "Hamas" in Rafah. He was killed in an airstrike by a fighter jet yesterday, the military said.
According to the IDF, this is Salameh Muhammad Abu Ajaj, one of the commanders of the joint security forces in Rafah.