Benny Gantz drops out of Israel’s election race

Benny Gantz, a former Israeli army chief and defence minister, announced on Monday that he would not run in the October 27 election. Polls had put his Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) party below the 3.25 percent threshold required to enter the Knesset. Gantz said he would continue working for unity and was expected to hold a news conference later that day. A former opposition leader, he served in a unity government with Benjamin Netanyahu from 2020 to 2021 and later joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet before quitting in June 2024.