Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must leave office, his predecessor Naftali Bennett has told a televised interview, refusing to say whether he intends to challenge the country’s longest-serving leader in an election.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 that aired on Saturday, former prime minister Bennett said Netanyahu “has been in power for 20 years… that’s too much, it’s not healthy.”

“He bears… heavy responsibility for the divisions in Israeli society,” Bennett said of growing rifts within Israel under Netanyahu, who has a strong support base but also staunch opponents who have demanded his departure, including over his handling of the Gaza war since October 2023.

Netanyahu “must go,” said the former prime minister, a right-wing leader who in 2021 joined forces with Netanyahu critics to form a coalition that ousted him from the premiership after 12 consecutive years at the helm.

But the fragile coalition government Bennett had led, along with current opposition chief Yair Lapid collapsed after about a year.