Netanyahu disbands war cabinet after split

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war cabinet, according to an Israeli official, following the exit from government of centrist former general Benny Gantz.
Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza conflict with a small group of ministers, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer who had been in the war cabinet.
The move was announced as US special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Jerusalem, seeking to calm the situation on the border with Lebanon, where Israel said tensions with Hezbollah were bringing the region close to a wider conflict.
The Israeli military said it had killed a senior operative in one of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile sections in the area of Selaa in southern Lebanon this week.
The military also said its operations were continuing in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip, where its forces have been battling Hamas fighters in the Tel Sultan area of western Rafah, as well as in central areas of the enclave.
Hochstein’s visit follows weeks of increasing exchanges of fire across the line between Israel and Lebanon, where Israeli forces have for months been engaged in a simmering conflict with Hezbollah alongside the war in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes on both sides of the socalled Blue Line that divides the two countries, leaving eerily deserted areas of abandoned villages and farms hit by a near-daily bombardment.
‘‘The current state of affairs is not a sustainable reality,’’ government spokesperson David Mencer told a briefing.
Netanyahu had faced demands from the nationalist-religious partners in his coalition, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to be included in the war cabinet. Such a move would have intensified strains with Israel’s international partners, including the United States.
The forum was formed after Gantz joined Netanyahu in a national unity government at the start of the Gaza war in October. It also included Gantz’s political partner Gadi Eisenkot and Aryeh Deri, head of the religious party Shas, as observers.
Gantz and Eisenkot both left the government last week, over what they said was Netanyahu’s failure to form a proper strategy for the Gaza war.
An agreement to halt the fighting in Gaza still appears distant, more than eight months since the October 7 attack on Israel led by Hamas fighters that triggered Israel’s military offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
The October 7 attack killed about 1200 people and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.
Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government’s aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home about 120 hostages still being held in Gaza.
Along the northern border on Monday, the second day of the Muslim Eid celebration was relatively quiet compared with previous days, when rocket fire set off widespread brush fires in heatwave conditions.
A survey for the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank, found 36 per cent of respondents favouring an immediate strike against Hezbollah, up from 26 per cent a month earlier.
The Alma Research Institute, an Israeli think tank that focuses on the northern border, May had the highest level of strikes against Israel since the outbreak of hostilities last October.
Israeli aircraft and artillery have pounded southern Lebanon and last week killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike against a command-and-control centre that drew a further intensification of attacks.
In addition to attacks by missiles and anti-tank rockets there has been a marked increase in drone attacks that have underlined the strength of the arsenal Hezbollah has built up since the last major conflict between the two sides back in 2006. Reuters
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Battle plans for Lebanon offensive approved: Israeli generals
The Australian/19.6.2024
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/battle-plans-for-lebanon-offensive-approved-israeli-generals/news-story/da3412566cfb608594fa6381dac791c6

The Israeli military says it has approved battle plans for an offensive in Lebanon as Jerusalem warns Hezbollah would be destroyed in the event of a “total war”.
As Hezbollah published a more than nine-minute video showing surveillance drone footage purportedly taken over northern Israel, The Israeli Defence Forces said: “The Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, MG Ori Gordin, and the Head of the Operations Directorate, MG Oded Basiuk … held a joint situational assessment in the Northern Command. As part of the situational assessment, operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated.”
The video, which AFP was unable to immediately verify independently, pinpointed what Hezbollah said were Israeli military, defence and energy facilities, as well as civilian and military infrastructure.
The footage of Haifa’s coastline, 27km away from the Lebanese border, appeared to include a portion of an Israeli Navy base, as well as several warships and infrastructure said to belong to the Navy’s submarine unit, Shayetet 7, the Times of Israel reports. It also included shots of what Hezbollah said were strategic military locations including the Iron Dome and David’s Sling air defence systems.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross-border fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
“We are very close to the moment when we will decide to change the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Israel Katz said.|
“In a total war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be hit hard.”
US envoy Amos Hochstein, on a visit to Lebanon, earlier Tuesday called for an “urgent” de-escalation of the cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
“The conflict … between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for long enough,” the presidential envoy said on a visit to Beirut.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically – that is both achievable and it is urgent.”
US wants to avoid ‘greater war’ at Lebanon-Israel border
The United States is trying to avert a greater war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, U.S.…
Hezbollah stepped up attacks on northern Israel last week after an Israeli strike killed one of its senior commanders.
Mr Hochstein met with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, a day after holding talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Speaker Berri and I had a very good discussion,” Hochstein said. “We discussed the current security and political situation in Lebanon as well as the deal on the table right now with respect to Gaza, which also provides an opportunity to end the conflict across the Blue Line,” he added, referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden last month outlined a truce proposal which Mr Hochstein said would ultimately lead to “the end of the conflict in Gaza”.
“A ceasefire in Gaza and, or, an alternative diplomatic solution could also bring the conflict across the Blue Line to an end” and allow the return of displaced civilians to southern Lebanon and northern Israel, the envoy added.
“This is a serious time and a critical moment,” Mr Hochstein said later after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, calling their discussion “excellent”.
“What we are working together (to do) is to try to identify a way to get to a place where we prevent a further escalation,” he added.
Mr Mikati said “what is required is to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon and return to calm and stability on the southern border”.
In a statement from his office, the Prime Minister said “continued Israeli threats” will not distract Lebanon from seeking calm.
Hochstein also met with Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun.