come up with a plan for the end of the war by June 8.

“Unfortunately, Netanyahu is preventing us from achieving real victory.

So we are leaving the unity government.

With a heavy but full heart,” Gantz said on Sunday.

Gantz has been considered a more liberal counterweight to Netanyahu.

Some analysts say his resignation will increase the pressure on Netanyahu to bring the war to a conclusion, while others argue that the embattled Israeli prime minister could lean more on his far-right government allies for support.

Here’s what to know about Gantz and the impact his resignation may have on Israel and its government:- **Background**: Gantz, 65, leads the centrist National Unity party and is a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, a position he assumed in 2011.

He was born in southern Israel to Holocaust survivors and joined the military at age 18, working his way up to the top post.

After leaving the military in 2015, he worked in business before turning to politics in 2018.

He has enjoyed popularity among Israeli voters since then, known for being a steady, even-handed antithesis to a sharp and sometimes turbulent Netanyahu.

- **War Cabinet**: After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct.

7, Netanyahu formed an emergency, sort of pop-up government to oversee the war in Gaza.

Before Sunday, its three voting members were Netanyahu, Gantz, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party but a political foe of the prime minister’s.

With the war in Gaza dragging on, Gantz called on Netanyahu last month to put forward a post-war plan that includes the return of the dozens of hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as a roadmap to demilitarize the enclave and identify non-Hamas leaders to govern it.

Gantz said if a plan did not materialize by June 8, he would resign from the war cabinet.

Putting the ball in Netanyahu’s court, Gantz said at the time, addressing the prime minister: “The choice is in your hands.

”- **Netanyahu’s Response**: Netanyahu on Saturday called on Gantz to stay in the cabinet.

“This is the time for unity and not for division,” he said in a post on X.

“We must remain united amongst ourselves in the face of the great tasks before us.

I call on Benny Gantz—do not leave the emergency government.

Don’t give up on unity.

” Since Gantz issued his ultimatum, no such plan has come to fruition.

Last week, Netanyahu announced what he said was an Israeli proposal that could facilitate the return of hostages and a winding down of the war, but the proposal did not fully address what would happen the “day after” the war, as Israeli and U.

S.

leaders have referred to concerns about what comes after Israel stops fighting there.

- **Impact of Resignation**: Gantz’s resignation would “put Netanyahu at the complete mercy of his right-wing and religious fellow travelers who—in the absence of Gantz’s fig leaf—will try to steer policy in a direction that is anathema to the Biden administration and puts Israel’s essential ties with the United States at risk,” said Shalom Lipner, a nonresident senior fellow for Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.

The resignation and subsequent political shake-up come at a fraught time, with cease-fire negotiations dragging on, burgeoning calls from Israelis pushing Netanyahu to facilitate the return of the hostages, and the Biden administration growing increasingly frustrated with the war.

Should Gantz resign, it would “add to the public pressure surrounding Netanyahu” and could “add fuel to the demonstrations against the government,” said Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

- **Current Situation**: On Oct.

7, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages.

Israel declared war on Hamas in response, launching a ground invasion that has been the most intense in the region since.

In July 2024, in an attack Hamas has blamed on Israel, the Gaza Strip has seen one of this century’s deadliest conflicts, killing tens of thousands and plunging at least half of the population into dire humanitarian conditions.

For months, Israel has resisted pressure from Western allies to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Despite calls for a cease-fire, including from President Biden, the United States supports Israel with military aid, funds, and has vetoed or blocked United Nations’ cease-fire resolutions.

The roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mistrust are deep and complex.