Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet on Monday, a spokeswoman for the prime minister confirmed.
The key political decision-making body for how the war in Gaza was being conducted was dissolved just over a week after the withdrawal of influential opposition leader Benny Gantz.
Israeli media had earlier leaked the news about the break-up of the cabinet, which was formed after the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7. A spokeswoman for Netanyahu confirmed the news on Monday.
Government sources said that Netanyahu would discuss critical decisions regarding the conflict in smaller forums in future.
The cabinet had been formed in an attempt to demonstrate political unity after the Hamas attack. Netanyahu leads a government composed of far-right and religious parties, but the war cabinet contained Gantz, a key opposition figure.
Last week, Gantz - a former general and defence minister - announced his withdrawal due to differences of opinion with regard to the Gaza war and what would happen to Gaza after the war is over.
An observer member of the cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot, also withdrew, leading to even greater expectations that the cabinet would be dissolved.
Investigations continue into deaths of eight soldiers
The Israeli army said on Monday that it believes an anti-tank missile was used in an attack on an Israeli armoured vehicle in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip which killed eight soldiers on Saturday, according to Israeli media.
The incident is one of the most serious for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the start of the war more than eight months ago.
Initial findings showed that a door of the Namer armoured personnel carrier was open contrary to instructions, the newspaper Israel Hayom wrote on Monday.
All of the vehicle's occupants were killed instantly when the rocket hit the vehicle. The incident is still being investigated.
Israel says Rafah offensive goals nearly achieved
The Israeli military says it will soon achieve its objectives in Rafah. Half of the combat units of Hamas militants governing Gaza before the war broke out in October have been destroyed, the army said.
Some 60-70% of the territory of the city in the southern Gaza Strip is under the "operational control" of Israeli troops, the army said on Monday. They expect to complete the operation in a few weeks, the army added.
Israel's army launched the operation in Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, at the beginning of May. The declared aim was to dismantle the last Hamas combat units.
The offensive was highly controversial internationally because more than 1 million Palestinians were in Rafah at the time.
Most of them had fled there from other parts of the Gaza Strip to escape the war. Almost all of these people have now fled from the city to an area to the west, where they are finding it difficult to get supplies.
According to unverified army reports on Monday, Israeli troops killed around 550 Hamas fighters in 40 days of fighting in Rafah. Twenty-two of their own soldiers in the fighting.
In the course of the operation, they found an extensive system of tunnels as well as large quantities of weapons and explosives.
At least 25 underground tunnels are said to run under the border with Egypt. This information cannot currently be independently verified.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, with more than 1,200 dead, carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel on October 7 last year.
The actions of the Israeli army have been criticized internationally - especially the operations in Rafah, where many displaced Palestinians sought refuge from the war raging elsewhere in Gaza.
Background to the Gaza war
The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by militants from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The militants murdered more than 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 37,000 people have been killed and more than 85,000 injured in the course of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, cannot be independently verified.