BIBI CANS ISRAEL’S GAZA WAR CABINET

Fears of Hezbollah conflict

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismantled the war cabinet set up to bring a unified approach to the fight against Hamas, as a top US envoy travelled to the region to push diplomatic efforts aimed at heading off a wider conflict with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border.
During a late night security cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu said he was scrapping the war cabinet, a small body that was formed at the start of the war and oversaw top decision-making, an ­Israeli official said.
The decision followed last week’s resignation of war cabinet member Benny Gantz in protest against Mr Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Dissolving the war cabinet lets Mr Netanyahu avoid a potentially thorny decision of whether to bring other politicians into the group, including far-right members of his coalition.
Instead, the larger security cabinet will continue to decide on matters regarding the war, and Mr Netanyahu will hold smaller forums for sensitive matters, the official said.
Disagreements in the war cabinet have grown for months over how to manage the Gaza war and the hostage crisis. Mr Gantz said publicly his influence over decisions about the war had diminished since earlier in the conflict.
The biggest counterweight to Mr Netanyahu remains the US, which is urging greater restraint in Israel’s decision-making in the war.
US special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel on Monday (Tuesday AEST) and met Mr Netanyahu and other top officials. He was then to head to Lebanon to meet senior officials there.
His trip comes after a tense week when an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed Taleb Sami Abdullah, one of the most senior members of Hezbollah, and the militant group responded by firing hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel over the course of three days.
“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation – one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said.
Officials in the negotiation and analysts say that recent weeks have seen an increase in the quantity and range of projectiles fired by Hezbollah and the depth of Israeli strikes into Lebanon, raising the chances of it becoming a full-scale war.
The militant group has launched more than 5000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosive drones at Israel since the start of the conflict on October 7, according to the Israeli military.
Since the start of the war, Hezbollah has lost 338 fighters, according to a tally based on the militant group’s statements.
Some 95 Lebanese civilians have been killed, according to OCHA, the UN humanitarian agency, and Lebanese officials.
In Israel’s north, 17 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed as result of the hostilities.
Concerns have grown in Washington about the conflict on the border. Last week, the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces made his first Pentagon visit in more than two years, in part to discuss the escalating tensions with Israel.
That same day, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke by phone with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, discussing ­efforts to de-escalate tensions, the Pentagon said.
Mr Hochstein has been involved in indirect talks with Hezbollah, with Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, acting as intermediary. They are discussing a preliminary agreement to end hostilities that would be contingent on a Gaza ceasefire.
Hezbollah is a US-designated terrorist organisation.
France is also working a diplomatic track to try to lower the temperature on the border. Delegations have travelled to Paris, Lebanon and Israel in recent weeks with limited success so far.
“The jump-start of negoti­ations is not there precisely because Hezbollah wants to connect a ceasefire in the north with a ceasefire in Gaza, and the Israelis are saying no. So that’s the main obstacle down the road,” a French diplomatic official said.
The diplomat said France was now asking for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza to create a favourable climate for negotiations.
Mr Gallant on Friday rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for France, the US and Israel to work together to ­defuse tension on the border.
Relations between Israel and France have been tense since the French Defence Ministry banned Israeli companies from taking part in a major Paris arms show earlier this month.
The Wall Street Journal