The Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz of stabbing the forces in the back through the public dispute with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that the Minister of War sought to weaken the Prime Minister before his meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

The far-right minister wrote on Facebook: “What Benny Gantz did yesterday is far from responsible; it actually borders on a crime.”

"When our best warriors and leaders sacrifice themselves and some are killed in war, he stabs them in the back, weakens them, and weakens the war, telling them they are dying for nothing because the war has been lost. All this to weaken the Prime Minister before the U.S. National Security Advisor arrives here and all in an attempt to resolve our differences in opinion or at least reduce them."

Sullivan met with Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon.

During a televised press conference on Saturday evening, Gantz issued a warning to Netanyahu, demanding that he adhere to an agreed-upon vision for the conflict in Gaza, which would include determining who might govern the region after Hamas's defeat, and warned that he would withdraw from power, indicating that this should not happen.

In response to Gantz's statement that "a small minority has seized control of the Israeli ship, sailing it toward a wall of rocks," Smotrich confirmed that Gantz sought to "deny the legitimacy of those who think differently from him" by labeling them as "fanatics."

He said: "For seven months, I bit my lip in the face of Gantz's unlawful demand and accepted my exclusion" from the war government in order to "maintain the very crucial unity," claiming that Gantz turned on Netanyahu "because of how many states he lost in the ballot boxes."