Otzma Yehudit party rejoins Netanyahu government after Gaza strikes

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says new phase of Gaza war will look “completely different” from previous operations.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party agreed to rejoin the Netanyahu government on Tuesday following the renewal of IDF operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hours after the IDF initiated the new air campaign against Hamas before dawn Tuesday morning, Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lauded the move, with Smotrich claiming the new campaign will be different from the earlier stages of the Gaza war.

In a post to X, Smotrich called the overnight air attacks a “gradual process that we have built and planned in recent weeks since the new chief of staff took office” that “will look completely different from what has been done so far.”

After the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, in which the terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people and took 251 as hostages, the Israeli air force pounded the Gaza Strip for nearly three weeks before the IDF entered on the ground.

While the army has already told Gazan civilians to evacuate specific incipient danger zones, it is not saying yet when or if ground forces will invade.

In an apparent reference to the Otzma Yehudit party, which quit the government after rejecting the recent hostage deal that exchanged 33 Israeli captives for nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, tons of humanitarian aid, and a major withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Smotrich added, “This is the moment for which we remained in the government despite our opposition to the deal, and we are more determined than ever to complete the task and destroy Hamas.”

Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben-Gvir also applauded the restart of military action, saying, “We welcome the return of the State of Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to intense fighting.”

“As we said … when we withdrew [from the coalition], Israel must return to fighting in Gaza,” the statement continued. “This is the right, moral, ethical and most justified step. To destroy Hamas and bring our hostages home, we cannot allow the terror group to exist — it must be eliminated.”

By Tuesday afternoon, the ruling Likud party and Otzma Yehudit had agreed to the latter’s return to the government. No details wre given regarding the precise terms of the agreement inked between the Likud and Otzma Yehudit.

Otzma Yehudit had previously set three conditions for its return to the coalition, chief among them the resumption of the Gaza war.

The other two were implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza relocation plan and stopping the entry of all humanitarian aid to the coastal enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a freeze on aid at the beginning of March, after Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal lapsed and Hamas refused to release more hostages unless Israel withdrew completely from Gaza.

In addition, over the last few weeks, the government has been busy organizing a Migration Authority to aid Gazans to leave the Strip voluntarily, whether by land, sea or air, and is actively trying to find countries to take them in.