This Thursday, the Israeli Parliament approved an emergency government to manage the country during the conflict with the Islamist movement Hamas, with the inclusion of five opposition deputies, led by Benny Gantz, in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Executive.
The decision to create an emergency government was made after Netanyahu’s executive was harshly criticized for not having prevented the surprise attack launched by Hamas on Israeli territory last Saturday.
The new government was negotiated in recent days and announced on Wednesday night by Netanyahu together with Benny Gantz, former chief of staff, former defense minister and currently one of Israel’s highest-rated politicians.
In a vote that was already anticipated, the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, approved the inclusion of Gantz and four other deputies from his center-right National Unity party in the Government led by Netanyahu, with 66 votes in favor and four against.
The agreement stipulates that Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot – also former Chief of Staff -, former Justice Minister Gideon Saar, and two other deputies will join the Government’s political and security office for the duration of the war and that, during this period, the Conflict will only be managed by leaving aside other legislative proposals.
The war management cabinet will consist of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party, the largest opposition party, who harshly criticized Netanyahu, but promised to support the new Executive from the outside, did not join the agreement.
Lapid especially criticized Netanyahu for maintaining “extremist figures” in his government, referring to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, from the far right, and Minister without Portfolio Bezalel Smotrich, from the religious extreme right.
Before proceeding to the vote, Netanyahu had indicated that the new Government “sends a great message, externally and internally” of unity.
“In the face of this conflict, we are united in internal brotherhood and mutual concern,” said the prime minister.
The vote was preceded by moments of tension, when the representative of the leftist Hadash-Taal party, Ayman Odeh, called for “withdrawing all citizens – Jews, Arabs and Palestinians – from the cycle of violence”, sublinhando that “the vingança is not the way”.
A deputy from Likud, Netanyahu’s party, responded by shouting “Revenge against Hamas!” and he recalled that the Islamist movement massacred a thousand civilians in its attack last Saturday on more than 30 communities near the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and internationally classified as a terrorist group, launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory on October 7, under the name of operation “Al-Aqsa Storm”, with the release of thousands of ‘rockets’ and the incursion of armed combatants by land, sea and air.
In response, Israel bombed several Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip from the air, in an operation it called “Iron Swords.”
Israel, which has imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip and cut off the supply of water, fuel and electricity, has so far confirmed 1,300 dead and 3,268 wounded since the start of the Hamas offensive, supported by the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian branch of Islamic Jihad. .
On the Palestinian side, the Ministry of Health confirmed that, in Gaza, Israeli retaliatory attacks left at least 1,354 dead and 6,049 injured and that there were also 31 dead in the West Bank, as well as around 180 injured.
According to Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht, around a thousand Hamas fighters were also killed during clashes with security forces on Israeli territory, where sporadic fighting continues.
Source: TSF
