KUALA LUMPUR: Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz is expected to announced the withdrawal of his National Unity party from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency coalition government by Saturday night, reports said.
According to Times of Israel, which quoted Hebrew media reports, said the decision follows the ultimatum issued by Gantz for Netanyahu to agree to a post-war Gaza plan by June 8.
The reports said Gantz's office had announced that he is scheduled to give a press statement on the matter at 8.40pm on Saturday.
Gantz, the reports said, has faced pressure from some quarters to remain in the government, but there have been no efforts by coalition parties to persuade him to do so after the deadline.
Last month, Al Jazeera reported that Gantz demanded Netanyahu to agree to the post-war Gaza plan by June 8.
In the plan, Gantz outlined six strategic goals, which included bringing hostages home; to topple Hamas rule, demilitarize and gain Israeli security control of Gaza as well as to advance normalization with Saudi Arabia as part of a comprehensive process to create an alliance with the free world and the West against Iran and its allies.
The reports also said that Gantz threatened to quit Netanyahu's coalition if such a plan was not forthcoming.
Netanyahu and Gantz reached an agreement in October last year to form an emergency government few days after Israel launched its war on Gaza on Oct 7 last year, the day Hamas led attacks on southern Israeli communities.
Gantz joined Netanyahu-led government and become one of the three member of Israeli's war cabinet, a small forum of ministers tasked with formulating Israel's strategy in the battle against Hamas.
