Netanyahu dissolves Israel’s war cabinet, criticizes IDF for humanitarian pauses in Gaza

Gantz’s departure left Netanyahu with “no counterbalance” in his war cabinet and meant he could no longer say that his decisions over the war in Gaza drew broad-based support, the Jewish Insider noted. With only religious groups left in the coalition, Netanyahu’s Likud party was the only “nominally secular” one remaining in the coalition: Gantz’s departure gave “Netanyahu less political and diplomatic cover to say that Israel’s maneuvers have support from both sides of the aisle.”

The Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday that the army would enact a daily humanitarian pause in Gaza to allow aid into the enclave, a plan that was criticized by Netanyahu, showcasing growing divisions between him and the IDF. “We have a country with an army, not an army with a country,” he said, according to Israeli TV outlets. The war cabinet has had a series of disagreements with the military over how the war has been conducted, and Gantz before his departure argued that Netanyahu did not have an effective strategy in Gaza, Reuters noted.

Disagreements between cabinet members and with the IDF come as Netanyahu’s government seems to be steering towards a second war front, Haaretz’s military correspondent Amos Harel reported. Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant organization in Lebanon, since the war began — but fighting has intensified in recent days. France and the US are working to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza “before total war breaks out” in the region, he noted, but Israeli officials have criticized those efforts, and accused France of “anti-Israeli” actions. Assessments “that the IDF will fairly easily overcome Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, sound divorced from reality and rely on a false reading of Israeli military strength,” Harel wrote.