Qatar and Saudi Arabia have strongly condemned the Israeli Knesset approving two laws aimed at "imposing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank", calling it a "blatant violation" of the rights of the Palestinian people, and a challenge to international law.
Gallant, who was a longtime rival from within the Likud Party, will be replaced by Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa'ar will replace Katz, as per Times of Israel.
In a significant move, Gideon Saar, leader of the New Hope party, on Sunday, rejoined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, just over a week after rejecting an offer to replace Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a report by Times of Israel.
According to the police, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman ordered the investigation "on suspicion of crimes in the field of ethical [misconduct] and interfering in legal proceedings that were allegedly done in the Transportation Ministry."
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on Knesset, reviving a push to pass legislation allowing the country's government to shut down foreign news networks, according to The Times of Israel.
"Our goal is a complete victory over Hamas," Netanyahu said at a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset. "We will kill the Hamas leadership, so we must continue to operate in all areas in the Gaza Strip. We must not end the war before then. It will take time--month, not years."
Titled "Plan for Victory in the Gaza Strip" and dated Jan. 16, the 102nd day of the war, the plan calls first for the IDF's continued destruction of Hamas's "order of battle"--its command structure, fighters, equipment and infrastructure.
Palestinian laborers from Judea and Samaria should not be allowed to return to work across the Green Line inside Israel's pre-1967 territory, a dozen Likud lawmakers wrote in a letter to Cabinet members made public on Wednesday.
At the meeting in the European Parliament, the Knesset was represented by the head of the Knesset Delegation for Relations with the European Parliament, MK Ariel Kallner (Likud), as well as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Moshe Turpaz and MKs Evgeny Sova (Yisrael Beitenu) and Tsega Melaku (
That means Likud needs to finalize coalition agreements with its right-wing partners, the Shas, United Torah Judaism, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam parties.