Israel Lapid vows support for any effort to topple Netanyahu

Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, threw his support on Monday behind any move to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Anadolu Agency reports.

“Yesh Atid Party will give the votes of its 24 members to any move” to remove Netanyahu, Lapid said on his X account.

Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party has 24 members in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

Media reports earlier said that former Defence Minister and War Cabinet Minister, Benny Gantz, sought to enlist members of the Likud Party in efforts to replace Netanyahu.

According to Israeli Army Radio, emissaries on behalf of Gantz promised spots in a new government to officials and lawmakers from Netanyahu’s Likud Party in exchange for completing a no-confidence vote to replace him.

Various lawmakers from Netanyahu’s own party were suggested as candidates for taking over the prime ministerial role without demanding it for Gantz, the broadcaster said.

Gantz declined to comment on the report.

Calls have grown in Israel for Netanyahu to step down amid growing criticism of his handling of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following a 7 October Hamas attack, so far killing at least 27,478 Palestinians and injuring 66,835 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

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