Gantz's departure will not jeopardize the parliamentary majority in the Knesset held by the right-wing ruling coalition.
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency government, removing the only centrist power in the embattled leader's far-right coalition, amid a months-long assault on Gaza.
“Netanyahu prevents us from moving towards true victory. That is why we leave the emergency government today, with a heavy heart but with full confidence,” Gantz said in a televised news conference on Sunday.
He called for early elections and said that “there should be elections that eventually establish a government that earns the trust of the people and is capable of facing challenges.”
“I call on Netanyahu: set an agreed election date.”
Last month, Gantz threatened to leave the emergency government, formed last year to oversee the war in Gaza, if Netanyahu did not present a postwar plan for the besieged and bombed-out Palestinian territory, where Israel continues a campaign of ground and aerial bombing. which has killed more than 37,000 people since October 7, according to Gaza health officials.
Demonstrations against the Netanyahu-led government are important but must be legal, Gantz said.
“Protests are important, but they must be done legally and must not promote hate. We are not enemies of each other. Our enemies are outside our borders,” he told reporters.
“I will be part of a government of national unity that includes all centrist parties and only that option will allow us to face all the challenges that lie ahead, even with Netanyahu. As I said, what we need is true and genuine unity and not partial unity.”
Don't 'leave the front'
Gantz also called on Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to “do the right thing.”
Netanyahu issued a brief statement calling on Gantz not to “leave the front,” but his departure will not jeopardize the right-wing ruling coalition's 64-seat parliamentary majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Gantz is seen as Netanyahu's main political rival in Israel. He was a leading opposition figure before joining the war cabinet.
Al Jazeera's Sara Khairat, reporting from Amman, Jordan's capital, said the move was not a surprise.
“He said his demands were very clear,” Khairat said.
“Benny Gantz was brought into this war cabinet… At first, they showed a united front. “These cracks started appearing everywhere and there was a lot of speculation, finally last month he said that he had given the prime minister an ultimatum,” he said.
Gantz's departure, Khairat said, leaves “the floor open for the most far-right ministers” within Netanyahu's coalition government to now join the war cabinet, including the party of Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich reacted to Gantz's resignation in a post on X. “There is no act less majestic than withdrawing from government during a war,” he said.
“This is exactly what [Yahya] sinwar, [Hasan] Nasrallah and Iran intended and unfortunately you are fulfilling their request,” Smotrich also said, referring to the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.
“I call on all leaders of Zionist parties for whom the State of Israel is important to join the unity government until victory.”
Smotrich's far-right party has the support of Israel's settler community.
