Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party formally resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Sunday morning, a day after Jerusalem approved the ceasefire deal with the Hamas terrorist group.
Ben-Gvir submitted his resignation alongside fellow Otzma Yehudit members Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who had led the Ministry for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee since late 2022, and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu.
Otzma Yehudit Party lawmakers Zvika Fogel, Limor Son Har-Melech and Yitzhak Kreuzer also informed coalition chairman Ofir Katz of their resignation from various Knesset committees, according to reports.
On Thursday, Ben-Gvir announced that if the hostage deal was approved, his party would quit the government. However, he added that his party would rejoin the government if the war was renewed.
Flanked by members of his party, Ben-Gvir said on Thursday that the deal means “the end of the war before Hamas is beaten,” adding that he had pleaded with the prime minister in a private meeting to jettison the deal, which he said gives a “prize to terror.”
Calling it a “reckless deal,” the Otzma Yehudit leader said the agreement will set free hundreds of murderous terrorists, pull the IDF from the Egypt-Gaza border and return thousands of terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip.
“The deal will, in fact, erase the achievements of the war,” he said.
“Otzma Yehudit, under my leadership, will not overthrow Netanyahu, nor will it act together with the left and its goals against the government, but it will not be able to be part of a government that will approve a deal that is a huge reward for Hamas, and that may bring upon us the next Oct. 7 disaster,” he said.
Otzma Yehudit controls six seats in the Knesset.
