Israel's centrist war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has cancelled a news conference that was scheduled for today amid speculation he had been planning to resign from the government.
Mr Gantz said last month he would resign from the war cabinet if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza by 8 June.
He had called a news conference for today but it has now been scrapped, Mr Gantz's spokesperson said.
His centrist National Union Party submitted a bill last week to dissolve the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and hold an early election.
Mr Gantz has been seen as a favourite to form a coalition in the event that Mr Netanyahu's government is brought down and early elections are called.
Israeli war cabinet minister set to announce resignation
Mr Gantz was scheduled to give a speech in which he was widely expected to announce his resignation from Mr Netanyahu's emergency government.
Last month, Mr Gantz presented the conservative prime minister with an 8 June deadline to come up with a clear day-after strategy for Gaza, where Israel has been pressing a devastating military offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The departure of Mr Gantz's centrist party would not pose an immediate threat to Mr Netanyahu's governing coalition, which controls 64 of parliament's 120 seats, but it could have a serious impact nonetheless.
With Mr Gantz gone, Mr Netanyahu would lose the backing of a centrist bloc that has helped broaden support for the government in Israel and abroad, at a time of increasing diplomatic and domestic pressure eight months into the Gaza war.
Mr Netanyahu would have to rely more heavily on the political backing of ultra-nationalist parties, whose leaders angered Washington even before the war and who have since called for a return to a complete Israeli occupation of Gaza.
This would likely increase strains already apparent in relations with the United States and intensify public pressure at home, with the months-long military campaign still not achieving its stated goals - the destruction of Hamas and the return of 120 remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Mr Gantz's exit might also indicate limited prospects of success in the latest ceasefire efforts, according to political analysts, who say he would have been more likely to stay on if a deal appeared more probable.
Polls have shown Mr Gantz, a former army commander and defence minister, to be the most formidable political rival to Mr Netanyahu, whose image as a security hawk was shattered by the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel.
Mr Gantz joined a unity government soon after 7 October, saying he was putting aside political considerations in the national interest.
Aid set to resume at US pier, as Israel says school strike killed 17 'militants'
Meanwhile, humanitarian aid entering Gaza by sea via a US-built pier will resume in the coming days, the Israeli military said after repairs to the structure were completed.
"The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has begun securing the coastal area of the US military's Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) capability in Gaza.
The pier's re-establishment will allow for the continued delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza in the coming days," the Israeli military said.
The US Central Command said yesterday it had re-established the temporary pier anchored off Gaza's coast, which had been temporarily removed after part of the structure broke off two weeks after it started operating.
Earlier Israel's army said it had killed 17 militants the day before in an air strike on a UN school in central Gaza, raising its previous toll from nine.
Thursday's Israeli strike hit a school operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza where thousands of displaced people were sheltering.
The nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said that at least 37 people were killed in the strike.
"Since the targeted strike the (Israeli army) has confirmed the identity of 17 terrorists that were operating from the school," the military said in a statement.
The Hamas media office accused the Israeli army of spreading "false information", claiming that three people presented as dead by Israel were still alive and that at least two had been killed in other strikes, adding the attack on the school had also killed 14 children.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari had said on Thursday that nine militants were killed when fighter jets attacked three classrooms in the school.
He said about 30 militants from Islamic Jihad and Hamas were hiding there.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the strike had been carried out "without prior warning".
He added that UNRWA "shares the coordinates of all its facilities (including this school) with the Israeli army and other parties in the conflict".
"Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," Mr Lazzarini said.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's 7 October attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
