TEL AVIV: Israeli former defense minister Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forge a unity government along with members of the opposition in a bid to help release the hostages held in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s coalition government depends on support from far-right members who oppose ending the war and making any deal with Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
Gantz, a rival of Netanyahu who nonetheless joined his government in the early days of the war, proposed a temporary coalition that would side-step far-right parties and strike a hostage release deal.
“I am here on behalf of the hostages who have no voice. I am here for the soldiers who are crying out, and whom no one in this government is listening to,” Gantz told a televised press conference.
“The duty of our state is first and foremost to save the lives of Jews and all citizens,” added Gantz, calling on fellow opposition party leaders Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman to also consider the offer.
Both opposition chief Lapid and Lieberman have previously rejected joining any Netanyahu-led government.
Netanyahu’s coalition faces a risk of collapse after the parliament’s summer recess ends, following the loss of support from ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties over legislation seeking to draft students of religious seminaries into the military.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right member of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition who could be sidelined if Gantz’s plan succeeds, was quick to dismiss it.
“Right-wing voters chose a right-wing policy — not Gantz’s policy, not a centrist government, not surrender deals with Hamas, but yes to absolute victory,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.
The government has faced increasing domestic pressure to secure an end to the war in Gaza, with mass protests calling for a deal that would see the hostages released.
Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Palestinian militants also hold the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war.
The demonstrations in Israel have intensified since Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved plans earlier this month to expand the offensive in Gaza and seize the Palestinian territory’s largest city.
The move has sparked fears that the onslaught would exacerbate already dire conditions on the ground after more than 22 months of war.
Netanyahu rival offers political truce to help secure Gaza hostage deal
https://arab.news/gggzs
Netanyahu rival offers political truce to help secure Gaza hostage deal
- Benny Gantz proposed a temporary coalition that would side-step far-right parties and strike a hostage release deal
- The former defense minister was a rival of Netanyahu who nonetheless joined his government in the early days of the war
- He called on fellow opposition party leaders Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman to also consider the offer
US military operations ‘ahead of schedule,’ Iranian leaders want to talk: Trump
- Trump also said Sunday that 48 Iranian leaders have been killed in the US-Israeli bombardments
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council had temporarily assumed duties
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s new leadership wants to talk to him and that he has agreed, according to an interview with the Atlantic magazine.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Trump said in the interview from his Florida residence. Trump did not specify who he would be speaking with or say whether it would occur on Sunday or Monday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardians Council had temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump said some of the people who were involved in recent talks with the US are no longer alive.
“Most of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big — that was a big hit,” he was quoted as saying in the interview with Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer. “They should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should’ve done it sooner. They played too cute.”
Offensive moving ‘ahead of schedule’
Trump also said Sunday that 48 Iranian leaders have been killed in the US-Israeli bombardments of the country and that the offensive is “very positive.”
“Nobody can believe the success we’re having, 48 leaders are gone in one shot. And it’s moving along rapidly,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview by Fox News.
Trump claimed overall success in the war, which was launched Saturday with the goal of removing Iran’s leadership and destroying its military. Iran has confirmed the death of its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
“We’re doing our job not just for us but for the world. And everything is ahead of schedule,” Trump was quoted as saying in a separate interview with CNBC.
“Things are evolving in a very positive way right now, a very positive way,” he said.
The interviews were conducted before the US military for the first time announced casualties in the war: three unidentified service members killed, five seriously wounded and several others more lightly injured.
Trump announced Sunday that the US military was sinking Iran’s Navy, having destroyed nine Iranian warships so far and “going after the rest.”
Trump made the announcement in a social media post as the Pentagon intensified its bombings of Iran’s military, deploying B-2 stealth bombers from the US to strike at hardened, underground Iranian missile facilities with 2,000-lb bombs.
US strikes also pummeled Iran’s naval headquarters, largely destroying it, Trump said.
