Israel’s Ben-Gvir to rejoin Netanyahu’s government

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the former Israeli prime minister and former Israeli national security advisor, will join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. He left the government due to disagreements over the ceasefire in Gaza.

Hours after Israel launched its most bloody Israeli strikes on Gaza since a January ceasefire, Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party made the announcement.

In a joint statement, Likud and Otzma Yehudit have come to terms with the Israeli government’s intention to send the faction’s ministers to the country today.

Ben-Gvir’s return will help to restore the coalition government, which lost a slim majority of its members in January.

In protest of the Gaza truce, the 47-year-old lawyer and politician, who has been in charge of the far-right organization Otzma Yehudit or Jewish Power since 2019, resigned in January.

Ben-Gvir had also stated in January that Hamas, the Palestinian organization that governs Gaza, must be “completely stopped” from bringing humanitarian aid, fuel, electricity, and water into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

He had stated that Hamas would only release its hostages if Israel’s security was threatened.

The ceasefire agreement with Hamas was broken by Israel’s continued airstrikes on Gaza overnight on Monday.

Netanyahu stated that he had given the military the directive to “strong action” against Hamas because it resisted requests to release Israeli captives or to accept offers to extend the ceasefire.

More than 400 Palestinian people were killed when the Israeli military claimed on Telegram that it was carrying out “extensive strikes on terror targets” belonging to Hamas.