Netanyahu's legal team on Tuesday asked the court to allow his absence from the formal reading of the charges against him, despite written objections by the state attorney's office.
The right-wing premier Netanyahu and centrist Gantz, Israel's former army chief, have gone head-to-head in three stalemated elections over the past year.
Details on an emergency government were not immediately clear, and any arrangement would likely be temporary, perhaps lasting long enough for Israel to pass through the worst of the pandemic.
In a sharp blow to Netanyahu, who had declared victory in a 2 March election, 61 of parliament’s 120 legislators voiced support for Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, in consultations with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday.
Benny Gantz does not officially have that title as the country has been stuck without a fully functioning government for more than a year, with three elections unable to produce a decisive result.
Calling the plan a 'historic opportunity' for the Palestinians to achieve an independent state, Trump added, 'this could be the last opportunity they will ever have.'
Israeli military aircraft carried out air strikes against the Gaza Strip Wednesday night, the army said, in what it called a response to a rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave.
Benjamin Netanyahu announced in Septemberhat he planned to annex the Jordan Valley, which accounts for around a third of the West Bank, if re-elected.
Settler leaders often say after attacks on Israelis that the right response is settlement growth.
Sara Netanyahu was found guilty of exploiting the mistake of another person and ordered to pay a fine and compensation.
John Earnest, 19, posted a virulently anti-Semitic letter on right-wing internet forums and armed himself with an assault rifle before carrying out the attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue, near San Diego, on Saturday.
In a letter made public Sunday evening Avichai Mandelblit told Benjamin Netanyahu lawyers that if he wants to exercise his right to defend himself before possible indictment he must notify authorities by 10 May.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election on Wednesday, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority and his main challenger conceding defeat.
Donald Trump - who in 2017 took the even more momentous step of recognising disputed Jerusalem as Israel's capital - called the Golan declaration 'a long time in the making.'
Trump called the Golan - a strategic area seized from Syria and annexed in a move never recognised by the international community - "of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition was thrown into crisis Wednesday after Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman's resignation over a controversial Gaza ceasefire deal.
Netanyahu has faced calls from his coalition members to hold a snap election after the resignation of Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday.
The groups, including Hamas, said in a statement on Tuesday they would abide by the ceasefire as long as Israel did the same.
