Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his six-member war cabinet, a widely expected decision following the departure of centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz and his ally Gadi Eisenkot.
Sensitive issues about the war with Hamas in Gaza will now be decided by a smaller forum, Israeli media reported.
Since Mr Gantz resigned eight days ago over what he said was a lack of strategy for the war, there have been calls from far-right ministers to replace him.
By dissolving the war cabinet, Netanyahu avoided a difficult situation with his coalition partners and international allies.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that, in their view, it would not affect the chain of command.
Mr. Gantz and Mr. Eisenkot joined a national unity government alongside Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition days after the fighting began in October.
Two former IDF chiefs of staff announced their resignations on June 9, with Mr Gantz saying the prime minister’s leadership was “preventing us from getting closer to real victory”.
Soon after, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had written to Mr. Netanyahu to request his addition to the war cabinet.
On Sunday night, Netanyahu reportedly informed ministers that he had decided to disband the decision-making body rather than bring in new members.
“The [war] the cabinet entered into a coalition agreement with Gantz at his request. As soon as Gantz leaves – no need for cabinets anymore,” he said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Haaretz reported that some issues previously discussed by the war cabinet will be transferred to the 14-member security cabinet, including Mr. Ben-Gvir and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
It said sensitive decisions would be resolved in a “smaller consultation forum,” expected to include Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Secretary Ron Dermer and the president. Chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri. These three were all in the war cabinet along with the prime minister, Mr. Gantz and Mr. Eisenkot.
The IDF’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, insisted on Monday that such moves would not affect the force’s operations.
“Cabinet members are being changed and methods are being changed,” he told reporters. We have hierarchy, we know the chain of command. We are working up the chain of command. This is a democracy.”
The Israeli military launched an operation in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, which left about 1,200 people dead and 251 others taken hostage.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, more than 37,340 people have been killed in Gaza since then.
There were further signs of tension within the Israeli government over the past day, as Netanyahu and his far-right ministers criticized the IDF’s decision to introduce a “tactical pause in military operations” during the day near the city of Rafah in southern Gaza to allow for more humanitarian aid shipments.
The pause is intended to allow trucks to pick up aid from the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing, southeast of Rafah, then move safely to reach the main north-south road inside Gaza. Supplies have been held up at the crossing since Israel began operations in Rafah last month.
But Mr. Ben-Gvir criticized this policy as stupid, while Israeli media quoted Mr. Netanyahu as saying: “We have a country with an army, not an army with a country.”
The IDF responded by saying the pause did not mean fighting in southern Gaza would stop, which created confusion about what exactly was happening on the ground.
The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa), the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, reported that fighting continued in Rafah and elsewhere in the south on Monday and “activity remained nothing has changed.”
Meanwhile, the IDF said its troops were “continuing targeted, intelligence-based operations in the Rafah area”. It added that they identified weapons, attacked structures equipped with explosives and killed “several terrorists” in the Tal al-Sultan area.
With little sign of progress towards a full ceasefire in Gaza, there have been fresh warnings from the Israeli military that the lower-level conflict with Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah is now at risk of escalating into a wider war.
After recent increased gunfire, a key US diplomat is returning to the region to try to ease tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.
