by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed his security cabinet Sunday night that the war cabinet, a small forum created on October 11 to manage the campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah, has been officially dissolved.
The establishment of the war cabinet was a key demand of National Unity party chair Benny Gantz when he joined the coalition shortly after the war began in October. The cabinet included just three voting ministers: Netanyahu, Gantz, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
However, National Unity Chair Benny Gantz and his party left the coalition last week. In light of this, Netanyahu told the Security Cabinet that there was no longer a need for the war cabinet since Gantz had departed.
The dissolution had been anticipated, and most observers see it as Netanyahu’s strategy to deflect demands by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) to join the war cabinet.
Netanyahu has navigated a delicate balancing act throughout the war, managing pressure from Israel’s top ally, the U.S., and growing global opposition to the conflict, while also addressing demands from his government partners, particularly Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.
Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are members of the larger security cabinet. Netanyahu in the past had previously withheld some sensitive information from the security cabinet due to concerns about leaks.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have criticized the war cabinet in recent months, arguing it was not acting aggressively enough against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border. Both have advocated for a full-scale invasion into southern Lebanon, including capturing territory.
Members of both Ben-Gvir’s and Smotrich’s parties announced on Monday that they will convene the Knesset caucus on Jewish resettlement of Gaza on Tuesday. This move directly conflicts with Netanyahu’s public statements that this is not Israel’s policy.
The war in Gaza began on October 7 when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a military offensive with the declared goals of dismantling Hamas and bringing the hostages home.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reports that over 37,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. This toll, which cannot be independently verified and does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians, includes approximately 15,000 terror operatives that Israel claims to have killed in battle. Israel also states it killed about 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
A massive barrage of Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon just after the terrorist group’s leader declared that two days of intense hybrid bombings, including the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting Hezbollah forces, amounted to a declaration of war.
Facing relentless violence against their communities by Islamic jihadist terror groups, 16.2 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa have now been forced to flee their homes and live in poverty-stricken Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
A Pakistani court has sentenced Shagufta Kiran, a Christian mother of four, to death for “committing blasphemy against Islam,” a senior Christian advocacy activist told Worthy News Thursday.
Amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reiterated that the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Times of Israel reports. The Crown Prince made his remarks during an annual speech to the advisory Shura Council on Wednesday (September 18).
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says that the pager model allegedly used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed numerous people, mainly in Lebanon, was made by its Hungarian partner.
Israel has condemned an adopted United Nations resolution demanding that all Israeli forces and civilians pull out of Palestinian areas within a year. The resolution also called for an embargo on arms that Israel might use in those areas.
Israel’s atomic chief has warned that Syria built an undeclared nuclear facility after Iran, which he said has “in alarming amounts conducting covert nuclear activities.”