Israeli National Security Minister and head of Jewish Power party Itamar Ben-Gvir resigns. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The party of Israel’s hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says its Cabinet ministers submitted their resignations from the government on Sunday in opposition to the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Follow here for live updates on Gaza ceasefire on January 19, 2025

The departure of the Jewish Power party from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government does not bring down the coalition or affect the ceasefire. But Ben-Gvir’s departure destabilises the coalition.

AFP reported that in a statement, Jewish Power called the ceasefire deal a “capitulation to Hamas” and denounced what it called the “release of hundreds of murderers” and the “renouncing of the (Israeli military’s) achievements in the war” in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retains a slim majority in the Israeli parliament despite their resignation.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Thursday (January 16, 2025) that he and his party colleagues would quit the cabinet if it approved a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, though they would not leave the country’s ruling coalition.

The deal, which came into force on Sunday, was reached in talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. If it holds, it would provide a desperately needed relief for Gaza, the tiny strip along the Mediterranean Sea which was relentlessly bombed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) over the past 15 months in which over 46,000 Palestinians were killed and almost the entire population of the enclave displaced.

Read the full article,