Netanyahu, Gantz To Form Emergency Gov't This Eve-Reports

Wires reporting that former alternate PM and defence minister Benny Gantz, head of the opposition National Unity alliance, is set to bring his party into an emergency unity gov't alongside PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and its right-wing allies this evening. It remains unclear whether the largest opposition party, the liberal Yesh Atid of former PM Yair Lapid, will join in an emergency administration.

• Previously, Lapid stated that his party would not join any gov't that included the far-right Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit party. However, in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks Lapid issued a statement saying that he had told Netanyahu that he would be willing to "establish together with him a professional, limited emergency government, which will manage the difficult, complex and protracted campaign before us." Reuters reports that according to a source close to Lapid, the emergency gov't could come about if its mandate was "narrow and professional."
• An emergency administration would likely ensure the swift approval of any necessary gov't decisions related to the ongoing conflict and act as a symbol of unity across the political spectrum after months of intense divisions within the Israeli political landscape.