JERUSALEM

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant doubted National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's role in failing to take prompt action against Israeli rioters who stormed two military bases late Monday where soldiers were being held in custody for gang molestation of a Palestinian detainee.

Gallant also urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to investigate whether Ben-Gvir prevented or delayed police action against Israeli rioters at the Sde Teiman and Beit Lid military bases in southern and central Israel.

The defense minister stressed the prime minister to "take a firm stand against the coalition members who participated in the riots," the Israeli daily Haaretz said.

Videos that went viral on social media show lawmakers and ministers from the far-right Jewish Power party taking part in the storming of the Sde Teiman military base.

The Defence Ministry considered the events “severe harm to national security and the government's authority over the Israeli army,” the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post also reported.

In his letter sent to the prime minister, he said: “Backing and active participation of elected officials in riots in army bases, while issuing harsh statements against senior army officers, is a severe and extremely dangerous phenomenon that harms security, social cohesiveness, and Israel's international reputation.”

“This dangerous phenomenon must be treated decisively and immediately,” added Gallant.

The storming included hand-to-hand clashes with soldiers and police officers who tried to prevent the protesters from entering the base and later from entering its halls.

“The Israeli army criticized the police last night for their inability to control the riots in Sde Teiman and Beit Lid - and claimed that despite appeals made to the police yesterday when the chaos began in Sdei Teiman, it took the police many hours to control the events,” the state-run broadcasting authority KAN reported on Tuesday.

The police have not yet commented on accusations leveled by the army, which is led by Ben-Gvir.

Dozens of Israelis on Monday evening broke into the Israeli military court building at the army's base in Beit Lid in central Israel to protest the arrest of soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza held in the Israeli Sde Teiman prison.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Over 39,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul