Netanyahu Dissolves War Cabinet After Gantz's Departure

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war cabinet, an Israeli official said , in a widely expected move that came after the departure from government of the centrist former general Benny Gantz.

Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war 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 forum was formed after Gantz joined Netanyahu in a national unity government at the start of the war in October and also included Gantz's 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 strategy for the Gaza war.

Meanwhile trucks carrying humanitarian aid were seen driving through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel, a day after the military announced it would hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

In a nearby lot on the Israeli side of the border, dozens of crates holding aid – mostly food items such as onions, canned mushrooms, rice and bananas – were waiting to be put on trucks for a transfer on the border to international organizations, including the United Nations and other partners operating on the ground in Gaza.

The military clarified that combat operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed.

Casualties were evacuated from the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza after an attack on a house by Israeli warplanes, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

Its teams retrieved two bodies and transported 14 injured people to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, also in central Gaza, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent said.