A good week after Minister Benny Gantz withdrew from the Israeli emergency government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the war cabinet. A spokeswoman for the head of government confirmed media reports on Monday about the dissolution of the body formed after the Hamas terror attack on October 7. Government sources said that Netanyahu would discuss critical decisions with regard to the current conflicts in smaller forums in the future.
The war cabinet made important decisions regarding the fighting in the Gaza Strip and also with regard to the conflict with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. In order to demonstrate unity after the Hamas attack, the then opposition politician Gantz joined the three-member war cabinet. However, the former general and defense minister announced his resignation a week ago due to differences of opinion regarding the Gaza war. He accused Netanyahu of “hesitation and wasting time for political reasons” and complained that the government was not developing a plan for a post-war order in the Gaza Strip.
Along with Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot also withdrew from the war cabinet. The former general had been a non-voting observer. After the resignations, the dissolution of the war cabinet was already expected.
The body had also served as a counterweight to Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist coalition partners. After Gantz’s resignation, the right-wing extremist police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had called for his inclusion in the war cabinet.
In the attack by Hamas and other Palestinian extremists from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel on October 7, around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage. According to figures from the Hamas-controlled health authorities (which cannot be independently verified), more than 37,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war that was triggered by this attack.
