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Hopes for an Israeli emergency unity government were rising on Wednesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met former defence minister Benny Gantz, head of the opposition National Unity party.
Both sides were "finalising the details", Mr Gantz's office said in a statement without elaborating.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition has agreed to form an emergency unity government with opposition politicians after the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israeli history, his ruling Likud Party said on Tuesday.
The surprise attack by Hamas and allied groups against Israel caused at least 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, and Israeli retaliatory bombing in Gaza, which has killed at least 850 Palestinians.
The majority of dead on both sides are civilian. Israel on Sunday formally declared a state of war.
The meeting had been delayed during arguments over the role of several far-right ministers in Mr Netanyahu's cabinet, who have been blamed for exacerbating tensions in the occupied West Bank.
The main opposition leaders, former prime minister Yair Lapid and Mr Gantz, had agreed in principle to join a unity government after the surprise attack on Saturday by Hamas, but both have made the exclusion of far-right ministers a condition of a wartime government.
A spokeswoman for Mr Gantz's party said she was optimistic there would be "good news" and that the party would unite with Mr Netanyahu to form an emergency government, but would not elaborate on the terms.
A meeting between Mr Gantz and Mr Netanyahu was scheduled for Tuesday evening but was delayed until Wednesday. The deal to pass an emergency unity government hinges on a formal agreement with Mr Gantz’s National Unity party and a deal is said to be close, according to a source from the party.
Calls for a united emergency government have been growing since the Hamas attack on Saturday. In his speech on Monday night, Mr Netanyahu called for a unity government without preconditions.
Mr Gantz, a former Israeli army chief of staff and defence minister, said he wants a smaller “war cabinet” to be established, including members of his party, but that is on condition far-right members of the current coalition, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are pushed aside.
“"I’m guessing that a number of the fringe ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir will not be in the unity government. They may be pushed out or resign because they lose their portfolios. I don’t know about Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – he’s on the borderline, as he’s considered to be more competent and more politically realistic even though he’s so ideological,” Gerald Steinberg, professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, told The National.
On Saturday, just hours after the attack, opposition leader Mr Lapid said he had told Mr Netanyahu that he was willing to put political differences aside and "establish together with him a professional, limited emergency government, which will manage the difficult, complex and protracted campaign before us".
A source close to Mr Lapid's party said that the offer still stood if the emergency government was "narrow and professional", in reference to far-right members of Mr Netanyahu's coalition government.
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A Palestinian girl holds two children as she stands on a street in Gaza city as Israel continues to launch air strikes. AFP -
Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes on Gaza city. AFP -
A Palestinian girl following an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis. Reuters -
Palestinians survey the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
A Palestinian woman, covered in dust, carries a child in Gaza city. AFP -
A Palestinian man with a child outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city. AFP -
Israeli soldiers walk through Kibbutz Be'eri. Days earlier Hamas militants killed more than a hundred civilians near the border with Gaza. Getty Images -
A wounded Palestinian man Ala Al-Kafarneh, who survived Israeli strikes, attends a hospital in Gaza city. Mr Al-Kafarneh lost his pregnant wife and several members of his family in air strikes after they fled Beit Hanoun. Reuters -
Supermarket shelves containing dry goods are left depleted in Tel Aviv. Getty Images -
An injured Palestinian man arrives at Al-Shefa hospital in Gaza city. EPA -
A boot lies on the ground outside a damaged house in Be'eri, Israel. EPA -
An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer near the border with Gaza in southern Israel. AFP -
Palestinian mourners during the funerals of Al-Agha family members killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
Family and friends of May Naim, 24, who was killed by Palestinians militants at a party near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, during her funeral in Gan Haim, Israel. Getty Images -
Palestinian children in Khan Younis fill bottles with water from public taps during the conflict with Israel. Reuters -
Men outside a morgue in Khan Yunis console a woman mourning loved ones killed in an Israeli air strike. AFP -
A Palestinian girl injured in Israeli strikes is taken to hospital in Gaza City. Reuters -
An Israeli woman is evacuated by paramedics following a rocket attack launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, in Sderot. Reuters -
A man looks at the destruction in the ravaged Jabalia refugee camp, following overnight Israeli air strikes. AFP -
The daughter of Zakaria Abu Maamar, a member of Hamas's political office, at her father's funeral, after he was killed in an air strike in Khan Younis. Reuters -
A collapsed building after an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City. AFP -
Firefighters attend a burning building after an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City. AFP -
Women and children in Gaza City. AFP -
An Israeli army soldier passes a Merkava battle tank in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. AFP -
An Israeli strike on the port of Gaza City. AFP -
Demonstrators outside the West Los Angeles Federal Building in California during a rally in support of Israel. AFP -
Mourners at the funeral of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli shelling in Khan Younis in Gaza. AFP -
Israeli journalists take cover during a rocket attack from Gaza in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Aza near the border. AFP -
Palestinians rescue a young girl from the rubble of a destroyed residential building following an Israeli air strike. AP -
Mourners at the graveside of Eden Guez, who was killed as she attended a festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen from Gaza. Reuters -
An Israeli fireman recovers after extinguishing cars set on fire by a rocket fired from Gaza. AP -
Smoke billows from a boat after a strike by Israel on the port of Gaza City. AFP -
Destroyed residential buildings in Gaza City. AP -
Rockets from Gaza launched towards Israel. Reuters -
A Palestinian woman sits among the rubble in the destroyed Al-Ramal neighborhood following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. EPA -
Israeli soldiers in armoured vehicles near the northern town of Kiryat Shmona close to the border with Lebanon. AFP -
Buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza city. Reuters -
Nicole Izsak, right, confronts a Palestinian supporter near the Israeli consulate in New York, claiming her cousin is being held hostage in Gaza. AFP -
The abandoned site of the Supernova music festival, besieged by Hamas militants in southern Israel. AFP -
An attack on the site by Hamas gunmen from Gaza left at least 260 people dead. Reuters -
A man carries a blood-stained flak jacket belonging to a Palestinian journalist, who was killed with two colleagues when an Israeli missile hit a hospital building while they were outside reporting, in Gaza city. Reuters -
An Israeli soldier holds a rescued dog as he takes position near a bomb shelter in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel. Reuters -
Protesters chant and wave the Palestinian flag at a rally in Melbourne, Australia. Getty Images -
Israeli border police walk past a burnt-out car as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, in Ashkelon, southern Israel. Reuters -
Palestinians amid the rubble following Israeli air strikes that razed a neighbourhood in Gaza city. AP -
Palestinians carry a wounded man at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. EPA -
Palestinians inspect damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Reuters
