Israeli war minister Benny Gantz announced Sunday he is quitting Netanyahu’s coalition government over differences on a transparent postwar strategy for Gaza.
Gantz, a centrist, was edged out of the coalition by the coalition's hard-liners on the war in Gaza.
While mistrusting many Palestinian leaders, Gantz always appeared more amenable to a two-state solution than Netanyahu. "No one is going anywhere," he said, referring to the Israelis and the Palestinians in the region.
Gantz said Netanyahu's promise for total victory against Hamas was empty and that Israelis deserve "a real victory" that "puts the release of the hostages above political survival."
His party’s resignation from the coalition will leave a void in the Knesset that could be filled by more ultranationalist conservatives, who will add more pressure on Netanyahu to follow a hardline policy toward Gaza.
Gantz’s resignation will go into effect within 48 hours.
Elsewhere, Israeli continued to pound Gaza on Sunday, a day after Israeli forces rescued four hostages during an operation that left at least 274 Palestinians dead, among them 64 children and 57 women, according to the Hamas-run government media office.
Watch related report by Arash Arabasadi:
The Israeli military said a special forces officer was killed during the bloody rescue operation in a densely built residential neighborhood of al-Nuseirat, adding that it knew of "under 100" Palestinians killed, though, it said, it did not know how many of them were fighters or civilians.
The Israeli military said in a statement its forces were continuing operations east of Bureij and the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing several Palestinian gunmen and destroying militant infrastructure.
Tanks rolled into two new districts Sunday surrounding the entire eastern side of Rafah and engaging against dug-in Hamas-led armed groups, according to residents trapped in their homes there.
Around 100,000 people of the more than 1 million residents and refugees who occupied Rafah a month ago remain in the city. Palestinian refugees abandoned Rafah, their latest refuge, and headed farther north, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.
"All UNRWA shelters in Rafah have been vacated. Many of the people who were based in Rafah have fled up the coast seeking safer locations in both Khan Younis and the middle area (of Gaza)," UNRWA said in a statement released Friday.
Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah killed two people Sunday.
In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that the best way to bring all the hostages home is a comprehensive cease-fire and hostage deal that has been endorsed by President Joe Biden as well as 16 countries from around the world and accepted by Israel.
Sullivan said that the ball is in Hamas’ court in accepting the deal that outlines a political and humanitarian strategy and offers “a logical strategic endgame.”
“If Hamas would say yes to that deal, there would be a cease-fire in place, hostages would be coming home, more humanitarian aid would be surging in, and a better day for the Palestinian people would begin to unfold,” he said.
However, Sullivan acknowledged that Israel has not yet offered a clear plan for the governance of a post war Gaza after a cease-fire agreement would be signed but he expressed hope that a solid vision would materialize in the coming weeks.
As of Friday, Hamas had yet to respond to Biden's cease-fire proposal.
The October 7 terror attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Hamas militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.
Israel’s military response has killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
