Reports on Monday said that the Zionist leader had announced the decision at a meeting of the political-security cabinet the previous evening.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have been pushing for a new war cabinet to be established after Benny Gantz quit the emergency government.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who have demanded the regime must continue its bombardment of Gaza despite calls for some restraint from allies including the US, had called for a new war cabinet to be formed featuring coalition party leaders.

Gantz and Eisenkot both left the government last week, over what they said was Netanyahu's failure to form a strategy for the Gaza war.