Israeli legislators pass budget, bolstering Netanyahu coalition

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s parliament on Tuesday passed a state budget amid the ongoing war in Gaza and the hostage crisis. With its passing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is more likely to survive to the end of its term in October 2026.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a Netanyahu ally, said the budget had “everything needed to win on the front and at home.”

It’s a political win for Netanyahu, who faces protests over his decision to resume the war in Gaza while hostages are still held by Hamas terrorists, and over his government’s recent moves to fire top legal and security chiefs.

Failure to pass a budget by March 31 would have triggered early elections, threatening Netanyahu’s nearly unbroken 15-year rule.

In theory, Netanyahu now has more freedom to negotiate a lasting ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. His allies, who want to continue the war, have little incentive to trigger new elections while their polling numbers are down, said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“Netanyahu is always thinking about the next elections,” Talshir said. “His goal is to make sure the extreme right will be in his government now and in the future.”

Elsewhere, in the West Bank, Israeli authorities released a Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary ” No Other Land,” a day after he was beaten by Jewish settlers and detained by soldiers. Hamdan Ballal and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler, allegations they deny.

Also, the Israeli military said a well-known Palestinian journalist killed in a strike on the Gaza Strip was also a Hamas sniper.

It shared internal Hamas documents showing that Hossam Shabat was a sniper in a Hamas battalion in northern Gaza and had received military training in 2019. The military said he had carried out attacks during the war.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike Tuesday in southwestern Syria killed at least four people as Israeli troops occupying the area clashed with local residents, Syrian state media and a war monitor reported.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said troops fired back at gunmen who attacked them, before launching a drone attack.