Gantz warns of civil war in Israel over Netanyahu's policies

Israeli Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz warned on Monday of a civil war breaking out in Israel due to the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

In a speech broadcast via the X platform, Gantz said: “If we do not come to our senses, a civil war will break out here, and the truth must not be obscured,” adding that “there is a leadership that alienates people and poisons the well from which we live.”

Gantz said that a civil war is when the Israeli army fights the enemy, and Knesset members lead raids on military bases.

In late July, a number of Knesset members, along with far-right protesters and masked soldiers, stormed the Sde Teiman base in the Negev to protest the military police’s arrest of nine soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner.

Later, they also stormed the Beit Lid base (center), where the accused soldiers were taken for interrogation, and tried to release them by force.

Gantz added that civil war erupts when the dignity of bereaved families and the families of the kidnapped is violated (by police forces during demonstrations), and when loyal government employees are labeled traitors.

Gantz did not clarify what he meant by his last statement, but earlier Monday, Netanyahu said Defense Minister Yoav Galant was adopting anti-Israel rhetoric.

Gantz's statements coincide with the continuation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, which has left more than 132,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.