Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government on Sunday, leaving him as the only centrist member of the embattled leader’s right-wing coalition to return to power amid the months-long war in Gaza.

The departure of Gantz’s centrist party would not pose any immediate threat to the government. But it could still have serious ramifications, leaving Netanyahu increasingly dependent on hardliners, with no end in sight to the Gaza war and a possible escalation of fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah.

Last month, Gantz gave Netanyahu a June 8 deadline to lay out a clear strategy for Gaza, where Israel is waging a devastating military offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Netanyahu rejected the ultimatum shortly after it was given.

On Sunday, Gantz said politics was influencing key strategic decisions in Netanyahu’s cabinet. He said it was a painful decision to resign while hostages were still in Gaza and troops were fighting there.

“Netanyahu is preventing us from moving toward a true victory,” Gantz said in a televised news conference. “So we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart but with full confidence.”

Netanyahu responded in a post on social media, telling Gantz that it was not time to abandon the battlefield.

With Gantz gone, Netanyahu would lose the support of a centrist bloc that has helped shore up support for the government in Israel and abroad, at a time when diplomatic and domestic pressure is mounting eight months after the Gaza war.

Though his coalition controls 64 of parliament’s 120 seats, Netanyahu will now have to rely more on political support from ultra-nationalist parties whose leaders angered Washington even before the war and who have since called for a full Israeli occupation of Gaza.

This will likely exacerbate already tense relations with the United States and increase public pressure at home, as the months-long military campaign has still not achieved its stated goals – the destruction of Hamas and the return of the more than 100 remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Surveys have shown that Gantz, a former army commander and defense minister, is the strongest political rival to Netanyahu, whose security hardliner image was tarnished by Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

He warned that the conflict in Gaza could drag on for years, and urged Netanyahu to agree on an election date in the autumn to avoid further political discord at a time of national emergency.

Gantz joined the unity government shortly after 7 October as part of Netanyahu’s inner wartime cabinet, where only he, Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Galant had votes.

On Sunday, Gantz described Galant, who has sparred with Netanyahu and some ultra-nationalist ministers, as a courageous leader and called on him to “do the right thing,” though he did not elaborate what that meant.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded Gantz’s now vacant seat in the war cabinet immediately after he announced his resignation.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement that Gantz was giving Israel’s enemies what they want.

Asked if he was concerned that his departure would impact Israel’s standing abroad, Gantz said both Galant and Netanyahu “know what needs to be done.”