The far-right Jewish Power party left Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition in January in protest against the ceasefire and hostage agreement with Hamas.
However, after Israel resumed bombing Gaza, the party’s leader Itamar Ben-Gvir announced that it would return to government.
According to Palestinian authorities, at least 400 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza overnight on Tuesday – and more than 1,000 people were injured.
Many of those killed were women and children, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s staff claimed the attacks targeted Hamas and were “a consequence of Hamas’ repeated refusal to release our hostages and its rejection of all proposals made to it by US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and the mediators”.
The resumption of bombing is seen as a very positive and necessary step by Jewish Power, and in a statement Ben-Gvir said the party “welcomes the return of the State of Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to intense fighting”.
“As we said in recent months, when we withdrew [from the government], Israel must return to fighting in Gaza. This is the right, moral, ethical and most justified step, in order to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization and bring back our hostages. We must not accept the existence of the Hamas organization and it must be destroyed”, he continues.
Clearing Gaza of Palestinians
Until January this year, Ben-Gvir was the minister responsible for Israel’s national security and has long been a highly criticized figure, not only internationally, but also at home in Israel, where criticism of the Netanyahu government is growing and the prime minister himself is accused of corruption-related crimes.
The criticism of Ben-Gvir stems partly from the party leader’s past open praise of Jewish terrorists and mass murderers, but also from his promotion during the invasion of Gaza of what analysts consider to be large-scale ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the area.
Although the radical Zionist publicly states that Israel should encourage Palestinians to “voluntarily” leave the area, the UN and human rights organizations argue that it is in fact a genocide to open the way for further Israeli occupation and more Jewish settlements.
In the past, Itamar Ben-Gvir has also attracted attention for his very hostile attitude towards Christians, defending Orthodox Jews who spit on Christians and calling the practice an “ancient Jewish custom”.