However, the party’s resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition alone is not enough to bring down the government. The party called the deal a capitulation to Hamas.
In Israel, members of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party have announced their intention to resign from the government because of the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement. The news was reported by an American CNN .
In a statement published on Saturday, the party condemned the ceasefire agreement, which, according to the party, will release “hundreds of murderers”. This refers to Palestinian prisoners who are released from Israeli prisons in exchange for Israeli hostages.
In addition, the statement says that the ceasefire nullifies the achievements of the Israeli army in the Gaza war.
– This agreement is a surrender to Hamas, the statement states.
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir as well as two other party ministers Yitzhak Wasserlauf and Amihai Eliyahu will submit their resignation letters during Sunday morning, Otzma Yehudit’s statement said.
The resignation of the party prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu however, the fragile government coalition alone is not enough to topple the Israeli government.
In his speech on Saturday, Netanyahu said that the ceasefire agreement includes the right to continue fighting if the extremist organization Hamas does not comply with the agreement.
Later, National Security Minister Ben-Gvir issued a statement in which he most obviously commented on Netanyahu’s speech.
– Considering that Hamas has not yet been defeated, we must clearly return to warfare – for this reason this should not be conditional, Ben-Gvir said.
The Gaza cease-fire and prisoner exchange agreement is scheduled to enter into force at 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning.