A growing fissure in Israeli leadership over the lack of any concrete plans for governing Gaza after the war with Hamas concludes now threatens the Jewish state’s governing coalition, according to reports. 

On Saturday, Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if no plan for post-war governance in the embattled Palestinian territory is approved by June 8, he would resign.

“Lately, something has gone wrong,” Gantz said. “Essential decisions were not made. Essential leadership decisions to ensure victory were not done. A small minority has taken over the command bridge of the Israeli ship of state and is steering her toward the rocks,” he continued, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies.

The statement came as tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, calling for new elections and release of the hostages still held by Hamas.

In his ultimatum, the centrist Gantz demanded the government adopt a six-point plan that includes ending Hamas’ rule, securing the return of hostages, demilitarizing Gaza and creating a joint international administration to handle the territory’s civilian affairs that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

The lawmaker’s threat came just days after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another member of the war cabinet, also tore into the prime minister for failing to rule out Israel’s involvement in governing the Palestinian enclave post-war and offering no alternatives.

“The ‘day after Hamas’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’s rule,” Gallant said, The Times of Israel reported. “Unfortunately, this issue was not raised for discussion, and worse, no alternative was brought up in its place.”

“I will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military administration in Gaza. Israel must not exercise civilian control in Gaza,” he added.

But Netanyahu brushed aside the dispute, issuing a statement that said the conditions Gantz described would mean “the end of the war and a defeat for Israel,” while “leaving Hamas intact.”

He accused Gantz of “threatening to bring down the emergency government in the middle of the operation” to clear Hamas from Rafah.

Netanyahu has not offered a plan for who will govern Israel after the war, but his far-right allies support full Israeli control of the territory.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Gantz was pushing to “stop the war and form a Palestinian state with American pressure” and called on Netanyahu to “make a strategic decision of full Israeli control over Gaza and a decision that from here on out our forces will not be stopped.”

In Tel Aviv, opposition leader Yair Lapid called on Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, also a former army general and fellow centrist war cabinet member, to resign from Netanyhu’s government, Haaretz reported. 

 “If you hadn’t been sitting there, we would have been six months past the era of Netanyahu and [National Security Minister] Ben-Gvir,” Lapid said. “The fact that Netanyahu is still in power [was made possible] in your name.”

The Israeli leaders’ war of words came just days after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another member of the war cabinet, tore into Prime Minister Benjamin for failing to rule out Israel’s involvement in governing the Palestinian enclave post-war and demanded he provide an alternative to Hamas’ leadership.

“The ‘day after Hamas’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’s rule,” Gallant said, The Times of Israel reported. “Unfortunately, this issue was not raised for discussion, and worse, no alternative was brought up in its place.”

“I will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military administration in Gaza. Israel must not exercise civilian control in Gaza,” he added.

In addition to Gantz, Gallant’s broadside against Netanyahu’s hazy post-war plans for Gaza’s leadership received support from Eisenkot, while leaders of the far-right religious nationalist parties ripped the defense minister for his statements. 

Should Gantz pull his party from the coalition, that would push Netanyahu even closer to his far-right allies, who hold a harder line on the war with Hamas and believe Israel should occupy Gaza and build Jewish settlements there.

“Defense Minister Gallant announced today his support for the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state as a reward for terrorism and Hamas for the most terrible massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” said far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionist Party

Alongside the heightened pressure from his cabinet members, Netanyahu is facing heat from the United States to bring a swift end to the now-seven-month-old conflict.

Washington has previously suggested letting a “revitalized” form of the Palestinian Authority govern the embattled enclave, but Netanyahu batted down the suggestion, claiming on Thursday the PA “supports terror, educates terror, finances terror,” and instead reiterated his goal of “eliminating” Hamas.

The absence of any clear plans for governance only benefits Hamas, whose leadership has insisted authority over the Palestinian territory would require the terrorist group’s involvement.

“If only Hamas is left in Gaza, of course they are going to appear here and there and the Israeli army will be forced to chase them around,” Emmanuel Navon, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, told AFP.

“Either you establish an Israeli military government or an Arab-led government.”

With Post wires.