Benny Gantz

His father Nahum Gantz Ostolish (1926–2005) came from Sovata (Szováta), in the more ethnically-Hungarian part of Transylvania, Romania, where his parents were Munkatsher Hassidim, a Haredi sect founded in Mukachevo (מונקאטש), Transcarpathia, then Hungary, now Ukraine.

He survived the Dragomirești Ghetto, Auschwitz, Harzungen and Woffleben[de], sub-sub-camps of Buchenwald.

Ostolish migrated to Palestine on the Arlozorov, an illegal aliyah ship.

British authorities in Palestine arrested Ostolish for trying to enter the country illegally.

He was an active member of the Labor Party and at one point a possible Knesset candidate.

He served as the mapainik (local representative of the Mapai party), a head of the moshav movement, and the community’s baal toke'a, blowing the shofar (ram's horn) on Rosh Hashana.

His parents were among the founders of Moshav Kfar Ahim, a cooperative agricultural community in south-central Israel.

In his youth, he attended the Shafir High School in Merkaz Shapira, and boarding school at the HaKfar HaYarok youth village in Ramat HaSharon.

According to his father, Benny Gantz was not religious and chose not to serve as the baal toke'a and does not know the Gaavad (chief rabbi of a rabinnical court) of Komemiyut (a nearby town in the Negev), but continued in his father's Zionist beliefs serving in the military, and holds "close to his heart" the memory of the Holocaust which Benny stated was present, "there, in the experience of the house".

Gantz is a graduate of the IDF Command and Staff College and the National Security College.

He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Tel Aviv University, a master's degree in political science from the University of Haifa, and an additional master's degree in National Resources Management from the National Defense University in the United States.

Gantz is married to Revital, with whom he has four children.

He lives in Rosh HaAyin.

His mother Malka (née Weiss, Margit Weisz, 1928–2009) was a Holocaust survivor, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, originally from Mezőkovácsháza, Hungary.

Benjamin Gantz (בִּנְיָמִין "בֵּנִי" גַּנְץ; born 9 June 1959) is an Israeli politician and retired army general who has served as minister without portfolio since 2023.

Benjamin Gantz was born in Kfar Ahim, Israel, in 1959, which his parents helped settle.

He was an only child.

Gantz was drafted into the IDF in 1977.

He volunteered as a paratrooper in the Paratroopers Brigade.

His first mission as a young conscript in 1977 was as part of the security detail for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel.

As a paratrooper, he fought in Operation Litani in March 1978 and also participated in a June 1978 raid against a Fatah training base in Lebanon.

In 1979, Gantz became an officer after completing Officer Candidate School.

He served as the 20th Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from 2011 to 2015.

In February 2011, following the government decision to promote Gantz to Chief of the General Staff, Attorney Avi'ad Vissuli of the Forum for the Land of Israel unsuccessfully petitioned to revoke the appointment.

In December 2018, he entered politics by establishing a new political party named Israel Resilience.

The party later allied itself with Telem and Yesh Atid to form Blue and White (Hebrew: Kaḥol Lavan), the colours of the Israeli national flag.

In 2022, Gantz became the leader of National Unity, made up of the Israel Resilience Party and New Hope.

In February 2019, an Israeli-American woman accused Gantz of exposing himself to her 40 years earlier, causing her traumatic disorders.

Gantz denied all allegations, claiming that such an incident never took place, and that the allegations were politically motivated.

Gantz has since sued the woman for defamation.

Gantz also served as Minister of Defense between 2020 and 2022 and as deputy prime minister between 2021 and 2022.

From 2020 to 2021, he was the alternate prime minister.

Gantz was the 17th Speaker of the Knesset from 26 March 2020 to 17 May 2020.

On 20 April 2020, Gantz agreed to join a rotation government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Under the terms of the agreement, Gantz was to serve as Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, before succeeding Netanyahu as Prime Minister in November 2021.

However, the coalition collapsed, resulting in another election in 2021.

As defense minister, Gantz was in charge of Operation Guardian of the Walls in Gaza.

In June 2021, he was reappointed Defense Minister and became Deputy Prime Minister in the new Bennett-Lapid government, serving in those roles until December 2022.

On 12 October 2023, following the breakout of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the National Unity Party announced that it would form a war cabinet with Likud.

Gantz was appointed as a minister without portfolio in the Thirty-seventh government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.