Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz may declare his departure from the Benjamin Netanyahu regime during a press conference, according to reports.
Gantz, the leader of the centrist National Unity party, will reportedly meet with reporters on Saturday evening and announce his decision.
Polls show that Gantz has a solid chance to unseat Netanyahu in case the regime crashes and early elections are called.
Gantz’s party recently submitted a bill to dissolve the Israeli parliament and called for fresh elections.
Netanyahu’s extremist coalition partners, so-called security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to break up the coalition should Israel stop bombing Palestinians in Gaza.
Gantz’s move would likely destabilize the Netanyahu regime and exacerbate the political crisis in Israel.
Gantz is seen by the US administration and many other Western and Arab governments as less crazy than Netanyahu.
His departure is likely to increase US and international pressure on Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire agreement with the government in Gaza.
Egypt and Qatar have been mediating negotiations aimed at conclusion of a ceasefire agreement following one in November, during which Hamas released 105 of the captives.
The countries proposed another proposal last month enabling cessation of the Israeli aggression and release of the rest of the captives.
Hamas agreed to the proposal, which was spurned by the Israeli regime.
Israel has waged the atrocious onslaught against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship since October 7.
At least 36,731 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and another 83,309 individuals have sustained injuries.
More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.