The main opposition leaders, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, agreed to join a union after the latest conflict broke out
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid
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(Portal) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has agreed to form an emergency government with opposition politicians following the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel’s history, the ruling Likud party said on Tuesday.
Key opposition leaders, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, agreed in principle to join a unity government following Saturday’s surprise attack by the Islamist group Hamas.
A spokesman for Gantz’s National Unity party said he was optimistic about the “good news” that the party would work with Netanyahu to form an emergency government, but declined to elaborate on the terms. A meeting between Gantz and Netanyahu was scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed until Wednesday.
The agreement between political parties that are usually deeply hostile to each other underscores the scale of the crisis following the killing of more than 1,000 Israelis by Hamas gunmen over the weekend and the capture of more than 100 others.
“Now an emergency government of unity!” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who represents a rightwing extremist party close to the Jewish settler movement in the West Bank, posted on social media.
CONTINUED AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS
The unprecedented scale of the Hamas attack has helped overcome bitter divisions that have arisen over plans by the most rightwing government in Israel’s history to pass laws that would strip the country’s highest court of much of its power.
Israel responded to the attack with a massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip, deploying thousands of troops around the narrow coastal enclave in growing expectations that it would launch a ground invasion to destroy Hamas.
In a statement on Saturday, just hours after the attack, opposition leader Lapid said he had told the prime minister that he was ready to put aside political differences and “together with him to form a professional and limited emergency government that will resolve the difficult, complex and lengthy campaign that lies ahead.” A source close to Lapid told Portal the offer would remain in place if the emergency government was “limited and professional.”