Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich resigned from his post as minister on Monday in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bezalel Smotrich, Reuters/Amir Cohen
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich resigned from his post as minister on Monday in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A spokesperson for Smotrich said the move was a protest against nationalist-religious Jewish Power party head Itamar Ben Gvir's request for more ministerial positions upon Ben Gvir's return to the government.
The resignation is not likely to collapse Netanyahu's coalition. The government passed its 2025 budget in Israel's parliament last week.
Reporting by Emily Rose
A Lebanese official denied on Thursday a Reuters report that Beirut had agreed with Israel to a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and said it was following up on the issue with Washington.
Israel won't withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, the defence minister said on Thursday, qualifying remarks he made a day earlier that had suggested Israeli forces would occupy the territory indefinitely and drew U.S. criticism.
Israeli troops clashed with Jewish settlers on Wednesday while trying to disperse them from a West Bank outpost they set up directly in front of Palestinian homes, and later withdrew from the area after failing to clear the settlers, witnesses said.
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