Tel Aviv and Jerusalem CNN –
Divisions in the Israeli government emerged publicly on Friday as members of the Cabinet argued over plans for Gaza's postwar future and how to handle investigations into security failings surrounding the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
The public sniper attack followed what one source described as a “fight” at a security cabinet meeting on Thursday. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said there had been a “stormy discussion,” while former Defense Minister Benny Gantz said a “politically motivated attack” had been launched.
The developments highlight the fault lines that are emerging in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition after three months of war with Hamas. If the government collapses, Israel would likely face new elections, which Netanyahu is widely expected to lose.
Thursday's split in the security cabinet centered on how to handle the investigation into the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, including the Israeli military's inability to foresee it, and how to prosecute the war from now on .
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined plans for the next phase of the Gaza war and provided details of what might follow in a three-page document titled “Day After.”
He described a “new combat approach” with a sustained focus on targeting Hamas leaders in the southern parts of the Strip. In the northern Gaza Strip, he said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign would include “raids, the destruction of terror tunnels, air and ground activities and special operations.”
After the war, the Israeli military would maintain its “operational freedom of action in the Gaza Strip” and Israel would continue to carry out “control of goods entering the territory.”
Gallant, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's center-right Likud party, said there would be “no Israeli civilian presence in Gaza” once the war's goals were achieved, appearing to rule out restoring Israeli troops to settlements in Gaza , which Israel unilaterally dissolved in 2005.
The defense minister also introduced the concept of a US-led multinational task force tasked with “restoring the Gaza Strip.”
Violeta Santos Moura/Portal
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, pictured on December 18, proposed a post-war plan for Gaza on Thursday.
However, the minister's plan offered little detail on the enclave's future management, saying only that the Palestinian “entity controlling the area” would “build on the capabilities” of “local, non-hostile actors” already in place in Gaza .
According to a source, the plan sparked a heated debate. After a break in the meeting, the source said, Transport Minister Miri Regev went on the attack. “After the break, Miri Regev came back and started this fight that was leaked,” said the official, who asked not to be named discussing internal political discussions.
Regev, who is also a member of Likud, did not respond to a CNN request for comment.
Gantz, who joined the government from the opposition after October 7, said: “What happened yesterday was a politically motivated attack in the middle of the war.” I have attended many cabinet meetings – such behavior has never happened before “It shouldn’t happen either.”
He did not say who launched the attack but criticized Netanyahu. “The cabinet should have discussed strategic processes that will affect the continuation of the election campaign and our security in the future.” “That did not happen, and the prime minister is responsible for that,” Gantz said, calling on Netanyahu to choose between unity and security on the one hand and politics on the other.
Netanyahu's Likud party then hit out at Gantz. “During a war, when the people are united, Gantz is expected to act responsibly and stop looking for excuses to break his promise to remain in the unity government until the end of the war,” it said in a statement .
Gantz is widely seen as Netanyahu's likely successor if a new election is held.
Gallant's plan was criticized on Friday by Smotrich, who along with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has pushed for the relocation of Gazans outside the enclave. Her comments were condemned by the United States, United Nations officials and several Arab states.
Smotrich wrote on Facebook that “'The Day After' is a repeat of 'The Day Before' from October 7,” referring to the date of the Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage became.
“The solution in Gaza requires looking outside the box and changing the approach by promoting voluntary migration and full security control, including settlement renewal,” Smotrich added.
Israel's deadly bombing and siege of the Gaza Strip has turned swathes of the Palestinian enclave into wasteland and put more than 2.2 million people at risk of severe dehydration, starvation and disease. According to the United Nations, at least 1.93 million Palestinians have been displaced.
Regional actors in the Middle East have repeatedly compared the mass movement of Palestinians in Gaza to the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, the Arabic term for the expulsion or flight of Palestinians from their cities during Israel's founding in 1948.
At least 22,600 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 70% of them women and children, the Haman-led health ministry said on Friday.
Getty Images
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (left) and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (right) have advocated for the mass relocation of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip to make way for Israeli settlers, stoking fears of a Palestinian exodus.
Smotrich previously said that removing Gazans from the Strip could pave the way for Israelis to “make the desert bloom,” while Ben Gvir suggested that the current war represents an “opportunity to focus on promoting the desert.” “to focus on the migration of the residents of the Gaza Strip.”
Smotrich, a Jewish nationalist, has denied the existence of a Palestinian people or nation. Ben Gvir was previously convicted of inciting racism against Arabs and supporting a terrorist organization.
Earlier this week, State Department spokesman Matt Miller strongly condemned Smotrich and Ben Gvir's “inflammatory and irresponsible” statements, saying the U.S. had been told by Israel “repeatedly and consistently” that such statements do not reflect Israel's policy “. Government.
Responding to the US statement, Ben Gvir called the US a “good friend” on Tuesday but said the “emigration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza” would allow Israeli settlers to return and “live in safety”.
Smotrich also responded to the US State Department's rebuke, posting on
Other foreign officials, from Europe to Saudi Arabia, have strongly condemned the rhetoric of Israel's far-right cabinet ministers, while a UN official warned that the forced relocation of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip was “an act of genocide.”
“The forcible relocation of the population of Gaza is an act of genocide, especially given the high number of children,” Balakrishnan Rajagopal, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, posted on X on Friday.
Gaza is Palestinian and its future does not lie with Israel, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told CNN's Isa Soares on Friday. “It is not up to Israel to determine the future of Gaza, which is Palestinian land; We must return to the principle of international law and respect it.”
On Thursday, U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said he was “very concerned by statements made by senior Israeli officials about plans to transfer civilians from Gaza to third countries.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday: “Forced displacements are strictly prohibited as a serious violation of international humanitarian law and words count.”
U.S. officials have previously said they ultimately envision both Gaza and the occupied West Bank being governed by a unified government led by a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority currently exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank after losing control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas in 2007.
An Arab delegation made up of officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority stressed at a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in December that Arab states need assurances that there is a path to a Palestinian State if they should go play a role in rebuilding Gaza.