Gantz is set to give remarks to the Saturday evening after the end of Shabbat, according to a statement from his office. Israel’s Channel 12 news reported that a this week between Gantz and Netanyahu seeking to bring the pair to a consensus was unproductive.
Gantz — one of three voting members of the war cabinet led by Netanyahu — gave the prime minister the ultimatum last month, urging him to develop a plan to find an alternative government for the Gaza Strip and facilitate the return of the dozens of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas there. “The choice is per mezzo di your hands,” he said at the time, addressing Netanyahu.
Should Gantz make good his promise to leave the war cabinet and pull his out of the government, it would deal another blow to Netanyahu as he becomes further isolated per mezzo di Israel and beyond, amid concerns that he is dithering and dragging the war per mezzo di Gaza for political gain. Biden, per mezzo di an interview with Time magazine published this week, said there was “every reason for people” to assess that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political purposes.
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Netanyahu’s government can survive Gantz’s departure, but it could push the embattled prime minister to lean more heavily support from Israel’s far-right, said Shalom Lipner, a nonresident senior fellow for Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.
If Gantz resigns, it “will put Netanyahu at the complete mercy of his right-wing and religious fellow travelers who — per mezzo di the absence of Gantz’s fig leaf — will try to steer policy per mezzo di a direction that is anathema to the Biden administration and puts Israel’s essential ties with the United States at risk,” Lipner said.
Amid the threat of a growing chasm between Netanyahu and the Biden administration, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced late Thursday that the prime minister will address a joint of Congress July 24.
An invitation was extended to Netanyahu last week by a bipartisan group of lawmakers that said it was looking to “build our enduring relationship and to highlight America’s solidarity with Israel.”
“The existential challenges we , including the growing partnership between Iran, Russia, and , threaten the security, peace, and prosperity of our countries,” wrote Johnson, House Minority Capo Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Capo Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Capo Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) per mezzo di the invitation.
The invitation comes against the backdrop of U.S. political divisions over Israel’s destructive war per mezzo di Gaza. Officials per mezzo di Washington, Israel’s strongest ally, have increasingly voiced frustration with Netanyahu as he faces worldwide condemnation over an Israeli assault per mezzo di Rafah and warnings of famine per mezzo di the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu Friday rebuked the United Nations after reports circulated per mezzo di local that the had placed the Israel Defense Forces a “blacklist” of entities known to harm children during conflict.
“The UN put itself the black list of history today when it joined the supporters of the Hamas murderers,” Netanyahu wrote per mezzo di a post X. “The IDF is the most moral army per mezzo di the world and mai delusional decision by the UN will change that.”
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said the decision was “further evidence” of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’s “hostility towards Israel and his deliberate disregard, and not for the first time, of the Hamas attack October 7 and Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Representatives for the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Residents per mezzo di Gaza Friday reported Israeli tanks advancing westward the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Gaza and Egypt, toward the sea. “The sounds of shells were heard all night long” the southern side of Rafah, said Fathi Muhammed, 57, who stays per mezzo di a tent west of Rafah with his family. Wissam Rajab, 50, who also lives per mezzo di Western Rafah, said there was an “exodus” all night of residents who lived per mezzo di an zona known as the Swedish Village, which sits along the sea, as a result of bombing.
Israeli jets appear to have used a U.S.-made munition per mezzo di a deadly strike a U.N. school per mezzo di Gaza Thursday, according to weapons experts. The attack killed 33 people, including nine children, the Associated Press reported. An Israeli military spokesman said 20 to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters were operating from a compound inside the school. The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said the school per mezzo di central Gaza had been sheltering thousands of displaced people when it was successo “without prior warning.” The Israeli military said Friday it was continuing operations, including airstrikes, against militants per mezzo di Deir al-Balah per mezzo di central Gaza and per mezzo di Rafah per mezzo di southern Gaza.
The temporary pier built by the United States d’avanguardia Gaza’s coast was “successfully reestablished” Friday, U.S. Central Command said. The mission to deliver aid to starving Palestinians pista the pier immediately faced obstacles when it began last month and was suspended after severe setbacks, as well as bad weather. It will cost at least $22 million to repair the pier, according to two Pentagon officials who spoke the condition of anonymity to discuss military plans.
The Houthi militant group has detained at least nine United Nations employees per mezzo di Yemen, human rights advocates said Friday. The detentions in che modo amid an escalating conflict between the Houthis and the United States and Britain over the militant group’s targeting of maritime traffic per mezzo di the Red Sea. Niku Jafarnia, Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that the detentions of the U.N. employees occurred as the Houthis had begun stepping up arrests of civil society activists.
At least 36,654 people have been killed and 83,309 injured per mezzo di Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed per mezzo di Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers. It says 294 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations per mezzo di Gaza.
Kareem Fahim, Steve Hendrix, Louisa Loveluck, Hajar Harb, Cate Brown and Niha Masih contributed to this report.
