Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz resigns and calls for elections

Israel's centrist War Cabinet Minister, Benny Gantz, announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency government on Sunday and called for new elections.

In response, Netanyahu released a statement saying that "Israel is in an existential war on several fronts. Benny, this is not the time to abandon the campaign."

In a televised press conference, Gantz accused Netanyahu of prioritizing his political survival over a ceasefire deal that would secure the release of about 100 hostages held in Gaza.

"Unfortunately, Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing toward the real victory," said Gantz. "Strategic decisions are met with hesitation due to political considerations."

Echoing increasing public protests against Netanyahu's government, Gantz called for a new round of elections in the fall. He urged Netanyahu to set an agreed-upon date to hold them. "Don't let our people be torn apart," he said.

Gantz's decision to withdraw his centrist party from Netanyahu's far-right coalition left it with extremist ministers, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who advocate for reoccupying the Gaza Strip and expanding Israeli settlements there.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on Sunday that the Israeli army killed three hostages, including an American citizen, during its operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.

A video clip released by the Al-Qassam Brigades on their Telegram account showed images of three bodies, with their identities undisclosed and faces covered, displaying bloodstains.

In the video, the brigades conveyed a message in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, saying, "Your hostages will only be released in exchange for our prisoners."

There has been no immediate response from Israeli authorities to the developments.

At least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed, and hundreds more were wounded, in the Israeli raid that rescued four hostages held by Hamas, Gaza-based health ministry said Sunday. The Israeli military said its forces came under heavy fire and responded during the complex daytime operation in central Gaza.

Lebanon-Israel border tension escalated

Two members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were killed and three civilians injured on Sunday in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese villages, Lebanese military sources said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one Hezbollah member was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southeastern Lebanese village of Houla, while the other was killed in an airstrike on the village of Aitaroun.

Farmers and civil defense units in south Lebanon were struggling on Sunday to contain a massive wildfire ignited by the shower of Israeli flares against Hezbollah targets that fell on farmlands and villages.

Thick smoke filled the air along the hilly Lebanese-Israeli border after a day of intensive exchange of fire between the Lebanese military group and the Israeli army.

On Saturday, flares and shells were launched in "unprecedented" numbers and intensity from the Israeli side, causing big bushfires and incurring huge losses on farmlands and livestock, Lebanese Civil Defense sources in southern Lebanon told Xinhua.

"The fires covered large areas extending from Naqoura in the west to the Shebaa Heights in the east, for a distance of about 100 km and a depth of 4 km north of the borderline," said the sources.

(With input from agencies)