Israel's Gantz demands Gaza day-after plan by June 8, threatens to quit cabinet

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz demanded on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to an agreed vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after the war on the besieged territory.

Gantz told a press conference he wanted the war cabinet to form a six-point plan by June 8. If his expectations are not met, he said, he will withdraw his centrist party from the conservative premier's broadened emergency coalition.

Gantz, a retired top Israeli general who opinion polls show is Netanyahu's most formidable political rival, gave no date for the prospective walkout but his challenge could increase strains on an increasingly unwieldy wartime government.

Netanyahu appears outflanked in his own inner war cabinet, where he, Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant alone have votes. On Wednesday, Gallant demanded clarity on post-war plans and for Netanyahu to forswear any military reoccupation of Gaza.

If the prime minister were to do that, he would risk angering ultra-nationalist coalition parties that have called for Gaza to be annexed and settled. Losing them could topple Netanyahu, who before the war failed to enlist more centrist partners, given his trial on corruption charges he denies.

"Personal and political considerations have begun to penetrate the Holy of Holies of Israel's national security," Gantz said. "A small minority has seized the bridge of the Israeli ship and is piloting it toward the rocky shoal."

Gantz said his proposed six-point plan would include bringing a temporary US-European-Arab-Palestinian system of civil administration for Gaza while Israel retains security control.

It would also institute equitable national service for all Israelis, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are now exempted from the military draft and have two parties in Netanyahu's coalition determined to preserve the waiver. 

Netanyahu is also under pressure from Washington to bring a swift end to the conflict and avoid being mired in a long counterinsurgency campaign.

Washington has previously called for a "revitalised" form of the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war.

But Netanyahu has rejected any role for the PA in post-war Gaza, saying Thursday that it "supports terror, educates terror, finances terror".

Experts say confidence in Netanyahu is running thin.

"With Gallant's criticism of Netanyahu's failure to plan for the day after in terms of governing Gaza, some real fissures are beginning to emerge in the Israeli war cabinet," Colin P. Clarke, director of policy and research at the Soufan Group think tank, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"I'm not sure I know of many people, including the most ardent Israel supporters, who have confidence in Bibi," he said, using Netanyahu's nickname.