Israel war cabinet member Gantz calls for September elections

Reuters. Israel war cabinet member Benny Gantz called for national elections in September on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government faces pressure at home and abroad over the war in Gaza.

 

"We must agree on a date for elections in September, towards a year to the war if you will," Gantz said in a televised briefing.

 

He said he believed an agreed election date would allow Israeli society to renew its contract with its leadership.

 

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent days demanding new elections. Many have criticised Netanyahu and expressed anger at his government's handling of the 134 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza six months into the war.

 

Gantz, a former army general, joined Netanyahu's government in the early days of the war as a gesture of political unity during the crisis. Polls suggest his National Unity Party would come top in any election and he would be favourite to take over as premier.

 

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, has repeatedly ruled out early elections, which opinion polls suggest he would lose, saying that to go to the polls in the middle of a war would only reward Hamas, the Islamist movement that ruled Gaza.