Otzma Yehudit announced that its members would be submitting letters of resignation to the government on Sunday in a Saturday statement.
“In light of the reckless approval of the agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas, which involves the release of hundreds of murderers with the blood of men, women, and children on their hands, this agreement sacrifices the IDF’s achievements in the war, includes the withdrawal of IDF forces from Gaza, and halts the fighting in Gaza. It is nothing less than a surrender to Hamas,” the statement reads.
The party announced that ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, and Amichai Eliyahu, and committee chairs MKs Zvika Fogel and Limor Son Har-Melech, as well as MK Yitzhak Kreuzer, will step down from their positions.
Previous threats
The right-wing party’s impending departure came after its leader, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened to leave the government if the deal was approved.
“The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” Ben-Gvir said in a televised statement on Thursday. He said the deal would “erase the achievements of the war” by releasing hundreds of Palestinian terrorists and withdrawing from strategic areas in Gaza, leaving Hamas undefeated.
“This deal teaches them [Hamas] that they can take hostages and attack, and at the end of the day, they can get what they want.”
Two other ministers, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) and Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud), previously threatened to leave the government if a full ceasefire was implemented.
While they have not announced their resignation, both voted against the deal in the deliberation last night.
Smotrich said that his party did “everything in our power to prevent a bad deal that would endanger Israel.”
“Unfortunately, the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] decided to give the green light to a bad, catastrophic deal: a deal that is dangerous to Israel’s national security and reverses many of the war’s achievements,” the RZP leader said.