In a surprise move, Benny Gantz upsets Benjamin Netanyahu's wartime government and calls for early voting in Israel for September. The rift of the centrist leader - and minister of the wartime Cabinet which he joined months ago - occurred after new street demonstrations against the executive in the name of new elections. Even today they were repeated in the Knesset with the dual objective of contesting Netanyahu and pressuring the government for an agreement that leads to the release of the hostages still held in Gaza.
It is difficult to understand whether Gantz's proposal will gather the necessary support to materialize in a return to the polls but in any case it marks a rupture in the Israeli internal front while the international pressure following the killing in a raid in the Strip of 7 humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen. US President Joe Biden has once again expressed "indignation and condemnation" for the attack and a phone call between the head of the White House and Netanyahu is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday, the tone and content of which is easy to understand.
“We should agree on a date to hold general elections in September,” announced Gantz, a former chief of staff currently leading all polls as Netanyahu's possible successor. His National Unity party is expected to become first in terms of seats in the next Knesset. "I believe that the proposal I am putting forward here to go to an agreed election date - he explained in a purposely called press conference - allows the fighting and national efforts to continue" but for the country to regain unity.
Netanyahu's response arrived shortly. "Gantz - replied the Likud, i.e. the prime minister's party - must stop dealing with petty politics. The government will continue until it achieves all the objectives of the war". The other centrist leader, Yair Lapid, who did not enter the government, was lukewarm, but for reasons opposite to those of the Likud. "The State of Israel - he warned - cannot wait another six months before the worst, most dangerous and failed government in the history of the country returns home".
The fact is that Israel - and Gantz underlined this in his speech - is increasingly isolated internationally.
Biden said he was "outraged and saddened by the death of seven WCK aid workers, including an American. They were providing food to starving civilians in the midst of a war. Their deaths are a tragedy." He then attacked Israel for "not doing enough to protect humanitarian workers" and "not even doing enough to protect civilians". So he insisted that the investigation promised by Israel "must be rapid, identify responsibilities and its results must be made public." But the US is not alone. After Great Britain, Poland - which is mourning one victim among the 7 killed in Gaza - has also summoned the Israeli ambassador and Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that the attack on the volunteers is "testing" Warsaw's solidarity with the Jewish state.
While Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called Netanyahu's response to the raid "insufficient and unacceptable".
"It was a mistake that shouldn't have happened", IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi limited himself to saying today too, after the army had already taken responsibility for what the prime minister himself had on Tuesday. described as "a tragic accident".
Netanyahu "said that 'this happens in war,' but the airstrikes on our convoy were not just an unfortunate mistake that happened in the fog of conflict: it is a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known to the IDF. Food is not a weapon of war". This is what chef Jose Andres, founder of World Center Kitchen, underlines, the NGO for which the seven humanitarian workers killed yesterday by an Israeli raid worked, explaining that "the Israeli government should stop killing civilians and humanitarian workers and start the long journey towards peace".
On the 180th day of the war, the deaths in Gaza due to Israeli raids - according to Hamas data which cannot be independently verified - have now reached 33 thousand with 75,577 wounded: in the last 24 hours, 59 Palestinians have been killed. While in the ongoing negotiations in Cairo, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh reiterated that "without Israel's withdrawal from Gaza" and "a permanent ceasefire" there will be no agreement. He requests that the Netanyahu government has already flatly rejected.
For further information Agenzia ANSA Pope, 'Too many boys died in the madness of war' - News - Ansa.it Show the gospel and the rosary of a Ukrainian soldier and pray for the volunteers killed in Gaza' (ANSA)
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