Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza.
The three-person War Cabinet was dissolved a week after Benny Gantz, a popular opposition lawmaker and former military chief, quit Netanyahu's governing coalition in frustration over how the war was being handled. In the early days of the war, Gantz demanded a small Cabinet with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be formed as a way to sideline far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu’s government.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change with the media, said Monday that going forward Netanyahu would hold smaller forums with some of his government members for sensitive issues.
Critics say Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making has been influenced by ultranationalists in his government who oppose a deal with Hamas for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages. Those hard-line politicians have voiced support for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of Gaza, currently home to some 2.3 million people, and a return to military occupation over the territory.
Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Currently:
— The war in Gaza is wiping out entire Palestinian families, one branch at a time. This is how
— AP documents 60 Palestinian families who lost dozens or more members in the war
— Israel’s army says it will pause daytime fighting along a route in southern Gaza to help flow of aid
— Eight Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza in deadliest attack on Israeli forces in months
— US aircraft carrier counters false Houthi claims with ‘Taco Tuesdays’ as deployment stretches on
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here's the latest:
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is welcoming Israel’s announcement of a “tactical pause” in fighting on some roads in Gaza, and is hopeful this will lead to Israeli authorities lifting all obstacle to aid deliveries for all of the territory.
“As we have reiterated, humanitarian operations in Gaza must be fully facilitated, and all impediments must be lifted,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told The Associated Press on Monday. “We need to be able to deliver aid safely throughout Gaza.”
The Israeli military on Sunday announced a “tactical pause” in daytime fighting along roads leading from Kerem Shalom, a main goods crossing with southern Israel, to a north-south highway in Gaza. Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, an Israeli defense body that overseas aid distribution in Gaza, said Monday the U.N. has yet to “take full advantage of the new route.”
In welcoming the announcement, Haq said, “The U.N. and its humanitarian partners are ready to engage with all parties to ensure critical, lifesaving assistance reaches those in need across Gaza, where catastrophic hunger is widespread.”
“We hope this leads to further concrete measures by Israel to address longstanding issues preventing a meaningful humanitarian response in Gaza,” he said.
With the war between Israel and Hamas in its ninth month, Haq said, displaced Palestinians in Gaza urgently need food, water, sanitation, shelter and healthcare, “with many living near piles of solid waste, heightening health risks.”
He said Israel needs to ensure that the movement of aid convoys and staff members through checkpoints is expedited, that all roads are operational, and that fuel — which is in critically short supply — enters Gaza regularly.
“It means providing the necessary communications equipment and logistical materials, which have long been denied by Israeli authorities,” Haq said.
“And most importantly, the rule of law must be addressed immediately,” he said. “Desperation and scarcity of aid have led to a near-total breakdown in law and order.”
Meanwhile, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an opinion piece in The New York Times that the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip has been turned into “hell on earth” as famine looms.
He said humanitarian aid is obstructed and politicized while hunger and disease spread, “and humanitarian workers, health care workers, and journalists have all endured unacceptable losses.”
JERUSALEM — A top U.S. diplomat tasked with quelling tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has arrived in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders.
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, arrived Monday at a time of heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Few details were made public about the visit, which was announced by Netanyahu's office.
Also Monday, Israel's military said it killed a member of the Hezbollah militant group in a strike southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has not claimed any attack on northern Israel since Saturday night.
The ongoing fighting has raised concerns that tensions could escalate into a full-blown war. Hochstein is expected to travel to Lebanon on Tuesday
The Iran-backed militant group began attacking Israel almost immediately after the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, with daily exchanges of fire since. In recent weeks, the exchanges have intensified, sparking fires that have burned trees and grassland on both sides of the border.
Israel killed one of Hezbollah’s top commanders in south Lebanon last week, sparking a huge barrage of rocket fire from the militant group toward Israel.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate. Hezbollah is the Arab world’s most significant paramilitary force with a robust internal structure as well as a sizeable arsenal. It seeks to exert pressure in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas during elusive negotiations with Israel over a cease-fire in Gaza.
BEIRUT — A member of the Hezbollah militant group was killed by an Israeli drone strike on a car southern Lebanon, the country's state-run National News Agency reported.
The airstrike came as Hezbollah has not claimed any attack on northern Israel since Saturday night, apparently because of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha that began Sunday morning.
The drop in Hezbollah attacks also came shortly before a visit to the region by a top U.S. official for talks on calming tensions on the border. Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, arrived in Israel Monday and is set to meet with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Tuesday. He has made several trips to the region in recent months.
Hezbollah issued a statement later Monday identifying the member killed in the drone strike near the village of Chehabiyeh as Mohammed Ayoub.
The Israeli military said Ayoub was a key operative in Hezbollah’s rocket and missile department in the group’s Nasr Unit, which is active along the border. It said Ayoub was involved in recent months in promoting and planning attacks from southern Lebanon against Israel.
Israel said it killed Ayoub as part of its activities “to impede Hezbollah’s military build-up in terms of weaponry and its stockpiling of weapons” that would be used against Israel.
After the Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza broke out in October, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli troops. Hezbollah says it will only stop fighting when Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip ends.
Since Oct. 8., more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon — most of them Hezbollah fighters but also more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Defense Ministry said Monday that the country made record sales last year in defense exports.
The Ministry said the country made $13 billion in sales in 2023, a period that includes the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7 and the first three months of the war it sparked.
With the war now stretching into its ninth month and with no end in sight, the figure may not entirely reflect the impact of the war on Israel’s ability to sell defense products to foreign countries.
Israel has faced mounting global isolation over its conduct during the war in Gaza. On Monday, a major defense and security industry show outside Paris said a French court has banned Israeli exhibitors from participating, following a government decision on the matter.
The ministry said a third of the exports were missile, rocket and air defense systems. They also included radar, weapon launchers and cyber systems, among others.
Nearly half of exports went to Asia and the Pacific region, while 35% went to Europe, the ministry said, adding that 3% of exports went to Arab countries that normalized ties with Israel over recent years.
KEREM SHALOM CROSSING, Israel — Israel said Monday the United Nations, the main aid provider in war-ravaged Gaza, is yet to “take full advantage” of a new route meant to ease the flow of aid into the enclave.
The military announced on Sunday a “tactical pause” in daytime fighting along roads leading from a main goods crossing to a north-south highway. The route is meant to help address a backlog of aid waiting for pickup on the Gaza side of the crossing.
“We have not seen the U.N. take full advantage of this step,” said Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, an Israeli defense body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza. Freedman was speaking at a briefing for reporters at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office, said workers on the ground were unable to use the route on Sunday, blaming a breakdown in law and order in the territory.
At the Israeli briefing, officials did not say how many trucks had made use of the route.
Freedman said the route would have military presence and Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel would “make sure the road is safe.”
Israeli authorities have continually said the lack of aid reaching desperate Palestinians in Gaza is due to the failure of the U.N. to distribute supplies within the war-stricken territory. Meanwhile, the U.N. has blamed Israel for enforcing unnecessary and drawn-out inspection procedures at the crossing, and said that fighting in Gaza, along with violence and truck looting, has hampered their distribution efforts.
Freedman said there were more than 1,000 trucks on the Gaza side of the crossing waiting to be picked up for delivery.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza.
The War Cabinet was dissolved following the departure from the government of Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker who had joined the coalition in the early days of the war. He had demanded that a small Cabinet be formed as a way to sideline far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu’s government. Gantz, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were its members and they made key decisions together throughout the war.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change with the media, said Monday that going forward, Netanyahu would hold smaller forums with some of his government members for sensitive issues.
Gantz, a longtime political rival of Netanyahu’s, joined the government as a show of unity after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. He left the government earlier this month, citing frustration with Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
Critics say Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making has been influenced by ultranationalists in his government who oppose a deal that would bring about a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages. They have voiced support for “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and reoccupying the territory.
Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.
___
Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel.
VILLEPINTE, France — A major defense and security industry show outside Paris says a French court has banned Israeli exhibitors from participating.
Event organizers said in a press release posted at the entrance of the Eurosatory exhibition, seen Monday by Associated Press journalists, that the court order issued Friday prohibited “the participation of employees or representatives, of any nationality whatsoever, of Israeli companies” in the show.
“In addition, all exhibiting companies are prohibited from receiving, selling or promoting Israeli weapons,” the press release said. It also said exhibitors cannot act as intermediaries at the show for Israeli companies “in any way whatsoever.”
It did not say what motivated the court’s decision. But it said the ruling came on the heels of a French government decision two weeks ago to prohibit Israeli companies from exhibiting at the show “in the current context.”
The event organizers said they’ll appeal the court decision “as soon as possible.” The Eurosatory exhibition, held every two years at Villepinte northeast of Paris, opened Monday and runs to Friday.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military announced on Sunday that it would pause fighting during daytime hours along a route in southern Gaza to free up a backlog of humanitarian aid deliveries for desperate Palestinians enduring a humanitarian crisis sparked by the war, now in its ninth month.
The “tactical pause,” which applies to about 12 kilometers (7½ miles) of road in the Rafah area, falls far short of a complete cease-fire in the territory that has been sought by the international community, including Israel’s top ally, the United States. It could help address the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged in recent weeks with Israel’s incursion into Rafah.
The army said that the daily pause would begin at 8 a.m. and last until 7 p.m. and continue until further notice. It’s aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach the nearby Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point, and travel safely to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road, the military said. The crossing has had a bottleneck since Israeli ground troops moved into Rafah in early May.
COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, said the route would increase the flow of aid to other parts of Gaza, including Khan Younis, the coastal area of Muwasi and central Gaza. Hard-hit northern Gaza, an early target in the war, is served by goods entering from the north.
