DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Centrist politician Benny Gantz, one of three members of the Israeli War Cabinet, announced his resignation Sunday.
The move poses no immediate threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose coalition still holds a majority in parliament. However, the Israeli leader is becoming more dependent on far-right allies.
Gantz stated that Netanyahu makes “complete victory impossible” and that the government must place the return of the hostages captured by Hamas on October 7 “above political survival.”
Gantz, a popular former military chief, joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Hamas attack in a show of unity. His presence also increased Israel’s credibility with its international partners. Gantz has good relations with US officials.
Gantz had previously announced that he would resign by June 8 if Netanyahu did not present a new plan for the Gaza Strip after the war.
He canceled a news conference planned for Sunday night after four Israeli hostages were rescued from Gaza, in Israel’s largest operation of its kind since the war began, which is in its eighth month. At least 274 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the attack, Gaza health officials said.
The army said its forces had come under heavy fire in the complex daylight operation deep inside the territory.
The death of so many Palestinians, including women and children, in an operation that the Israelis celebrated as a huge success, showed the high cost of such operations, and adds to an already enormous death toll after eight months of war, triggered by the attack of Hamas of October 7.
Dozens of hostages are believed to be held in densely populated areas or in Hamas’ labyrinthine network of tunnels, making such operations very complex and dangerous. A similar assault in February rescued two hostages and left 74 Palestinians dead.
The complicated raid into the heart of Nuseirat, an urbanized refugee camp in central Gaza that dates back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, was the largest rescue operation since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants and others The groups crossed the border, killing around 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and taking around 250 hostages.
Israel launched a massive retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count.
About 700 people were injured in Saturday’s operation, the ministry said. Authorities did not say how many of the victims were women and children, but Associated Press journalists saw several being treated after the attack at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.
Israelis celebrated the return of Noa Argamani, 26; Almog Meir Jan, 22; Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, after Israeli forces stormed two locations at once under enemy fire.
Argamani was among the best-known hostages after being captured, like the other three, at a music festival. The video of her kidnapping showed her sitting between two men on a motorcycle while she screamed “don’t kill me!”
Her mother, Liora, who has brain cancer, had posted a video asking to see her daughter. Israeli television station Channel 13 said Argamani had been taken to the hospital where her mother is receiving treatment.
In Gaza, doctors described scenes of horror and chaos as the wounded arrived at nearby hospitals that were already struggling to care for the wounded after several days of heavy Israeli attacks in the area.
“We had the full range of war injuries, traumatic injuries, from amputations to disembowelments to trauma, traumatic brain injuries, fractures and obviously, major burns,” said Karin Huster, of Doctors Without Borders, an international charity working at the hospital. Martyrs of Al-Aqsa, one of the facilities that received dead and wounded.
“Children completely gray or white with shock, burned, screaming for their parents. Many of them do not scream because they are in shock,” she added.
The Israeli army said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the area” and that a special forces soldier had been killed in the rescue operation.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters on Saturday that the hostages were being held in two apartments, about 200 meters (219 yards) apart, in the heart of Nuseirat camp. He indicated that the forces had repeatedly trained in a scenario that simulated the apartment building.
Hagari said the forces had entered the two apartments simultaneously, believing that this guaranteed a greater surprise effect. But he said rescuers had come under intense enemy fire on their way out, including the use of grenade launchers from within the neighborhood.
The army responded with force, also from aircraft, to remove the rescuers and the freed hostages.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz lashed out at criticism of the operation in a post on X and said that “only Israel’s enemies complained about the casualties among Hamas terrorists and their accomplices.”
Of the 250 hostages seized on October 7, around half were freed in a week-long ceasefire in November. About 120 hostages remain, 43 of them dead. Among the survivors are about 15 women, two children under 5 years old and two octogenarian men.
Saturday’s operation brought the total number of hostages rescued to seven, including one who was freed shortly after the October attack. Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of at least 16 others, according to the government.
The latest rescue lifted some spirits in Israel, where differences are festering over the best way to bring the hostages home. Many Israelis are urging Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire agreement announced last month by US President Joe Biden, but his far-right allies threaten to bring down the government if he does so.
Netanyahu, who has lost support, rushed to the hospital to greet the freed hostages and his office published a series of photos and videos of him meeting the families. However, thousands of Israelis gathered again on Saturday night in an anti-government demonstration and called for a ceasefire agreement.
It was unclear what effect the rescue might have on apparently stalled efforts to seek a ceasefire.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week to seek progress.
Israel is under increasing pressure to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza. Palestinians also face growing hunger because fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely blocked the flow of aid.
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Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed to this report. Magdy reported from Cairo.