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The Israeli regime's ruling coalition has become a minority after a lawmaker from a left-wing party quit.

Iran PressMiddle East: Israel's ruling coalition on Thursday became a minority in parliament when an Arab lawmaker from a left-wing party quit, leaving the regime's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett with a more precarious grip on power.

The defection by Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, who in a letter circulated in Israeli media said she was pulling her support for the government on ideological grounds, leaves Bennett controlling 59 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Reuters reported.

Bennett heads a collection of left-wing, centrist, right-wing and Arab parties that was sworn in a year ago, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12-year run as prime minister.

It lost its slight majority last month when a lawmaker from Bennett's own right-wing party quit the coaltion. 

Naftali Bennett's cabinet is now more vulnerable and would need to find external support should the opposition bring a no-confidence vote in parliament.

In her letter to Bennett informing him she was quitting, Zoabi, a legislator from the Meretz party, referenced an escalation in violence at the Jerusalem al-Quds holy site, Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as hard-handed tactics by Israeli police at the funeral last week of a Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

"I cannot keep supporting the existence of a coaltion that shamefully harrasses the society I came from," she said.

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