Netanyahu drawn into security update before Knesset approval of emergency government

Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is drawn into a security update, delaying voting to approve Israel’s national emergency government.

Netanyahu was called into the briefing, shortly before the Knesset was set to begin voting to append Benny Gantz and four additional members of his National Unity party to the prime minister’s government, as part of a national emergency government set to run for the duration of hostilities against Hamas and allied terror organization in the Gaza Strip.

Before calling a brief recess, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana opens the session by reading emergency shelter directives, in case rocket barrages target Jerusalem during voting.

Ohana, deploring Hamas’s Saturday terror attack that killed over 1,200 Israelis and injured more than 3,000 calls for “destruction of the enemy and complete victory.”

In addition to adding Gantz, National Unity MKs Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa’ar, Chili Tropper and Yifat Shasha-Biton will join the government as ministers without portfolio.

The five will join the security cabinet, with Shasha-Biton serving only as an observer.

In addition, Gantz will join Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a to-be-formed war cabinet.

The Knesset is also set to add Shas MK Uriel Buso to the government, in order to take over the Health Ministry from dual-tapped minister Moshe Arbel, who also runs the Interior Ministry.

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