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Former Defence Minister Amir Peretz yesterday announced his candidacy to become the leader of the Israeli Labour Party.

Peretz, whose announcement was widely expected, said: “Under my leadership, Labour will bring the fight to the extreme right-wing government under Netanyahu, until we can replace it with a centre-left coalition that we will lead.”

He added: “I fully believe that at this time I am the only candidate who can bring more of the population to vote for us.”

Peretz led the Labour Party from 2005 to 2007, serving as Defence Minister during the Second Lebanon War, and was credited with advancing the Iron Dome missile defence system. He subsequently left Labour to join Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah faction, which then joined forces with Labour to form the Zionist Union.

Current Labour leader Isaac Herzog is expected to defend his position and welcomed Peretz’s challenge, calling him “a respected candidate”.

Although the Zionist Union, of which Labour forms the largest faction, was the second largest party at the last election in 2015, they have seen support decrease significantly in recent polls.

With the contest set to take place in July 2017, Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit and former leader Shelly Yachimovich are also expected to challenge for the leadership.

In another incident in Israeli politics yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid in a disagreement over the allegations that Joint Arab List MK Basel Ghattas smuggled mobile phones to Palestinian security prisoners. Lapid said that he would not support Likud Minister Ze’ev Elkin’s attempt to apply a recently-passed law which would allow Knesset members to dismiss fellow MKs under special circumstances. Lapid favours the removal of Ghattas’ parliamentary immunity to allow criminal proceedings.

Netanyahu told his Likud faction that Lapid’s refusal was “not surprising… We are talking about a leftist who stands at the head of a leftist party.” Yesh Atid responded saying that Netanyahu’s attempt to dismiss those who disagree with him as left-wing is “the same old idiotic and pitiful trick”.