Israeli leaders air wartime divisions over Gaza

GAZA STRIP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced criticism from his own war cabinet, with his main political rival, Benny Gantz, threatening to leave the government if a plan is not formulated by June 8 that includes an international administration for post-war Gaza.

Netanyahu, who is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has rejected those proposals, saying Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with local Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Gantz' withdrawal would not bring down Netanyahu's coalition government, but it would leave him more reliant on far-right allies who support the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, full military occupation and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there.

"The war cabinet must formulate and approve by June 8 an action plan that will lead to the realization of six strategic goals of national importance.. [or] we will be forced to resign from the government," Gantz said, referring to his party, in a televised address directed at Netanyahu.

Gantz said the six goals included toppling Hamas, ensuring Israeli security control over the Palestinian territory and returning Israeli hostages.

"Along with maintaining Israeli security control, establish an American, European, Arab and Palestinian administration that will manage civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip and lay the foundation for a future alternative that is not Hamas or [Mahmoud] Abbas," he said, referring to the president of the Palestinian Authority.

He also urged the normalization of ties with Saudi Arabia "as part of an overall move that will create an alliance with the free world and the Arab world against Iran and its affiliates.”

Even as the discussions of postwar planning take on new weight, the war is still raging with no end in sight. In recent weeks, Hamas has regrouped in parts of northern Gaza that were heavily bombed in the early days of the war and where Israeli ground troops had already operated.

Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed 31 people in central Gaza on Sunday, mostly women and children, and fighting raged across the north.

The airstrike in Nuseirat, a built-up Palestinian refugee camp in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, killed 31 people, including eight women and four children, according to records at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies.

A separate strike on a street in Nuseirat killed another five people, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service. In Deir al-Balah, a strike killed Zahed al-Houli, a senior officer in the Hamas-run police, and another man, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Palestinians reported more airstrikes and heavy fighting in northern Gaza, which has been largely isolated by Israeli troops for months and where the World Food Program says a famine is underway.