Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz agreed Wednesday to form an emergency government of national unity for the duration of the war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
The decision to set aside bitter political differences is a significant one, and marks the achievement of one of the goals Netanyahu listed in his speech to the Israeli nation on Monday. Gantz, a former defense minister and general in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who leads the opposition Blue and White Party, had previously vowed to “shake the country” if Netanyahu passed his judicial reforms (one of which, indeed, was passed).
Meanwhile, Gaza’s power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday, while the Palestinian Hamas terror organization continued to fire rockets at Tel Aviv and other heavily populated areas of Israel.
As the Associated Press noted (via Times of Israel), Gaza only has one power plant, which is normally supplied with fuel from Israel. Any remaining electricity in Gaza is being supplied by private generators, which are also running on fuel supplies that will dwindle in the coming days, since shipments from Israel have stopped.
Palestinian terrorists continued to fire rockets Wednesday. Israel’s Army Radio repeatedly interrupted broadcasts on Wednesday afternoon to warn residents of southern Tel Aviv, including the mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood of Jaffa, to seek shelter.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system typically eliminates rockets that are aimed at populated areas, but debris from midair strikes still falls to the ground, and rockets occasionally evade the system, especially when fired in overwhelming numbers.
There are also continued skirmishes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, as the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah threatens to open a second front.
U.S. President Joe Biden promised Tuesday to replenish Israel’s supply of the missiles needed for the Iron Dome system, which was designed in Israel but jointly developed with help from the U.S. Other U.S. munitions have also begun to arrive in Israel.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the U.S. would support Israel’s war effort against Hamas for as long as it took for Israelis to feel safe.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
