Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has dissolved his war cabinet, an Israeli official said Monday, after the departures of two significant members prompted demands from far-right politicians for representation in the influential group.
The two members, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, quit Mr. Netanyahu’s small war cabinet last week amid disagreements over the direction of the war in Gaza. The men, both former military chiefs, had been seen as voices of moderation in the body, which was formed in October after the Hamas-led assault on Israel and made many decisions about the conflict.
The Israeli official suggested that Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to disband the body — which was communicated to ministers at a wider cabinet meeting on Sunday — was largely symbolic given that Mr. Gantz and Mr. Eisenkot had already resigned.
Since their departures, discussions about the war have been driven by Mr. Netanyahu in conjunction with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and close advisers, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Dissolving the war cabinet formalizes that process. It may also defuse calls from Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners who might have hoped to fill the places of Mr. Gantz and Mr. Eisenkot.
According to Mr. Eisenkot, the influence of one of those far-right leaders, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, had long loomed over the war cabinet’s discussions. After Mr. Gantz resigned, Mr. Ben-Gvir immediately demanded to join the group, writing on X that it was “about time to take brave decisions, achieve true deterrence, and bring true safety to the residents of the south, north, and all of Israel.”
Israeli news outlets reported on Monday that Mr. Netanyahu’s move to disband the war cabinet was a direct response to that demand.
For now, major decisions about the war in Gaza — like whether to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas — will still be put to a separate and broader security cabinet. That group includes Mr. Ben-Gvir and another far-right member, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister. Both have argued strongly that Israel’s military offensive in Gaza must continue until Hamas is destroyed.
The smaller war cabinet was charged with overseeing the fighting in Gaza. Having members like Mr. Gantz and Mr. Eisenkot, former military chiefs of staff from the centrist opposition to Mr. Netanyahu’s government, lent an aura of consensus and legitimacy internationally as Israel grew increasingly isolated over its handling of the war.
“Netanyahu was hearing from very serious perspectives,” said Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and analyst who worked as an aide to Mr. Netanyahu in the 1990s, citing the military careers of Mr. Gantz and Mr. Eisenkot. “Now he’s lost it. What he has now is more of an echo chamber.”
Israeli news outlets reported that Mr. Netanyahu is now expected to rely on advisers like Ron Dermer, a seasoned confidant of the prime minister and former ambassador to the United States who served as a nonvoting member of the war cabinet.
But it’s important to remember that Mr. Netanyahu was nevertheless always in the driver’s seat, Mr. Barak added.
Dissolving the war cabinet “centralizes his power and solidifies it and makes it much more difficult for any mutiny,” he said.
