National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced this afternoon (Sunday) that the Otzma Yehudit party would continue to boycott votes in the Knesset and explained why he refused to attend today's Cabinet meeting.

Ben-Gvir visited the headquarters of Yamam, Israel Police’s National Counter Terrorism Unit, during the weekly Cabinet meeting.

"I thanked the soldiers and commanders for their courage and bravery. The residents of the south are also heroes. They suffer attacks by a murderous terrorist organization time and time again. But the State of Israel must move from containment to attack. The Israeli government must take the initiative, strive for contact, and embrace the values of the right," Ben-Gvir said.

"True, this is not an Otzma Yehudit government, we don't have 64 mandates, but Likud also made promises. This is the reason I didn't come to the government meeting today and that's why Otzma Yehudit members won't come to the Knesset votes. We demand that right-wing values be adopted," he said.

Ben-Gvir also responded to the criticism he received from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: "And one word for Minister Gallant who talked about seeing many bodies of terrorists, I have no doubt about that. But Minister Gallant, in recent years, I have seen dozens of murdered people, it is for those murdered people that we need to stop the containment, stop the concessions, not release bodies, not release terrorists, but kill them.''

During the Cabinet meeting today, Gallant said: “The corpses of terrorists are not really an asset that influences terrorist groups, with the exception of some very specific cases that are connected to Hamas."

“Hamas’s decisions in Gaza are not connected to the body of a terrorist from a small group in Judea and Samaria, and it has no influence. They’re not interested," he said.

In an apparent jab at Ben-Gvir, Gallant said: "Personally, I don’t get excited over a minister that attacks me; most of them have seen fewer terrorists’ bodies than I have. The problem with these statements is that they hurt the families of missing soldiers and give them a mistaken sense that we are not doing enough for them.”

Gallant also noted that "the security establishment is making tremendous efforts to return the missing persons. I suggest to all members of the government that they stop these irresponsible and harmful statements."