A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed Monday the dissolution of the war cabinet, created after the unprecedented October 7 attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas in Israel, following the resignation last week of centrist Benny Gantz.
Israeli media reported earlier Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the dissolution of this select group during a security cabinet meeting on Sunday.
David Mencer, a spokesperson for Mr. Netanyahu’s office, confirmed the dissolution of the war cabinet, specifying that the security cabinet would make “decisions on matters relating to the war.”
“The war cabinet was a prerequisite for the creation of this government of national unity […] With the departure of Mr. Gantz from the government, the cabinet is no longer necessary, its functions will be taken over by the security cabinet” , said Mr. Mencer during a press briefing.
The security cabinet, which includes nine ministers in addition to Mr. Netanyahu, is now the main body making decisions on the war with Hamas.
Israel carried out strikes on the northern Gaza Strip on Monday and witnesses reported explosions in the south, but the situation there is relatively calmer since the start of a humanitarian pause observed by the army in a southern sector.
The pause, announced on Sunday to coincide with the first day of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, is intended to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, which Gazans desperately need after eight months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas.
In a message to Muslims for Eid al-Adha, US President Joe Biden on Sunday defended a ceasefire plan to help victims of the “horrors” of war.
The army announced a pause “from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (5 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern Time) every day until further notice” on a stretch of road about ten kilometers from the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, to the European Hospital in Rafah, further north.
The army confirmed that the pause was still in place on Monday but an official reminded AFP that there was “no change in the policy of the Israeli army”, particularly in Rafah, in the south , where it launched a land operation in early May.
The army said on Monday that it continued to operate in Rafah and the central Gaza Strip, and was engaged in “close combat” with Palestinian fighters.
Doctors at Baptist Hospital in the northern Gaza City reported five deaths in two airstrikes.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told AFP that the army had carried out two nighttime strikes on an apartment and a house, killing people “including a child and an elderly man.”
“The rest of the Gaza Strip is relatively calm,” he added.
Tanks fired on areas east and south of Rafah, according to local officials. Witnesses reported explosions in the city.
In the center, an airstrike targeted the Boureij camp, according to residents.
“We are not in an Eid state of mind, Eid is when we return home, when the war ends. When every day there is a martyr, it is not Eid,” testified Amer Ajour, a displaced man in the town of Deir el-Balah.
The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel carried out an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally compiled from official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the army.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip that left 37,347 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
The pause observed locally is intended “to allow the UN to collect and distribute more aid,” a spokesperson for the Israeli authorities, Shimon Freedman, told Kerem Shalom on Monday.
“More than 1,000 trucks” are on the Palestinian side, he said, accusing international organizations “of not having taken the necessary measures” to ensure the distribution of aid.
The UN welcomed the Israeli announcement but asked that this pause “lead to other concrete measures” to facilitate deliveries, and once again called for the removal of “all obstacles” to the delivery of aid.
Kerem Shalom has become the only crossing point for humanitarian aid in the south of the Gaza Strip since the army launched its offensive on Rafah, bordering Egypt, and took control of the border post .
Despite international mediation efforts, hopes for a ceasefire remain unfulfilled. Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, while the Islamist movement is demanding a definitive ceasefire.
An envoy from Joe Biden also arrived in Israel to try to calm tensions on the border with Lebanon, between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
