Gantz said weighing return to government to pass ceasefire and hostage-release deal

Benny Gantz, chair of the centrist Blue and White-National Unity party, is considering rejoining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to shore up votes for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Gantz’s party joined Netanyahu’s right-wing government following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and he was one of three voting members of a newly formed war cabinet. But his party left the government in mid-2024 due to differences with the prime minister.

Now, National Unity may rejoin as Netanyahu decides whether to accept a 60-day truce that would reportedly free 10 living hostages. Hamas has agreed to the deal but Netanyahu’s cabinet has yet to meet to discuss it.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, vehemently oppose a ceasefire and support the government’s decision earlier this month to conquer Gaza City.

Ben Gvir resigned when Israel agreed to a ceasefire in January, later returning to the government when it resumed the war. Smotrich recently told relatives of hostages that he would resign if Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire, Channel 12 reports.

Gantz’s faction has undergone a string of defections and now controls seven seats in the Knesset while still coordinating with an eighth member who recently left the party.

The party’s numbers would not replace the 13 MKs controlled by Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and would not give Netanyahu a majority in the 120-member body.

A poll by Kan found that 54 percent of Israelis support a deal to free the hostages, see the IDF retreat, end the war and free Palestinian prisoners, while 28% support the conquest of Gaza City.