Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party quit Netanyahu government

Protesting the Gaza ceasefire and the release of hundreds of jailed Palestinian terrorists, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party bolt Netanyahu’s government.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s National Security Minister resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government Sunday, in protest of the Gaza ceasefire deal, which was approved by the cabinet Friday evening.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, chairman of the Otzma Yehudit party, submitted his letter of resignation Sunday morning after the cabinet voted 24 to 8 in favor of the hostage and ceasefire deal with Hamas that would see the release of several thousand jailed Palestinian terrorists, including hundreds of convicted murderers, in exchange for the freeing of 97 Israeli captives, roughly half of whom are believed to be dead.

The entire Otzma Yehudit party followed suit Sunday, with Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf submitting their own letters of resignation from the government.

Three Otzma MKs — Zvika Fogel, Limor Son Har-Melech, and Yitzhak Kreuzer — submitted their resignations from Knesset committee, in keeping with the party’s departure from the coalition.

In a statement Sunday, the party castigated Prime Minister Netanyahu and the government for the “approval of the reckless agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas, the release of hundreds of murderers who shed the blood of men, women and children – who are also being released to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, while renouncing the IDF’s achievements in the war, the withdrawal of IDF forces from the Gaza Strip and the cessation of fighting in Gaza, in an agreement that constitutes a surrender to Hamas.”

In his resignation letter, Ben-Gvir slammed the hostage deal, calling it a “dangerous agreement,” which “unfortunately constitutes a surrender to terrorism, crossing every ideological red line, and is in total contradiction with everything you laid out in the past.”