Zein Khalil and Rania Abu Shamala
12 June 2025•Update: 12 June 2025
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL
Israeli government ministers have told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the time has come to end the war in Gaza, a report said Wednesday.
Israel’s Channel 12 said that unnamed senior government ministers told Netanyahu that it is time to start working toward ending the war.
The report said the ministers, along with other senior officials, conveyed to him that each additional day of fighting brings more political harm than military gain.
According to the channel, the ministers’ statements followed a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, during which Trump reportedly urged Netanyahu to end the war.
The channel noted that since Oct. 7, 2023, there has been no discussion within the Israeli governing coalition about the possibility of ending the conflict.
The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 55,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
As Israel has continued to close all Gaza’s border crossings to humanitarian aid since early March, aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
