Netanyahu and his former rival Benny Gantz both hailed their "emergency government of national unity" on Sunday as the end of an unprecedented one-and-a-half-year political crisis.

But the make-up of the coalition, with seven factions with widely different world views, is likely to pose immediate challenges.

These are likely to include a cabinet or parliament vote, possible as early as July 1, on whether Israel should extend sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank that house settlements, on what Netanyahu notes is Biblical land.

Passing a long-needed budget agreed by all, with a deficit heavily weighed down because of the coronavirus crisis, is also likely to prove difficult.

Minutes before Netanyahu, of the Likud party, and Gantz, of the centrist Blue and White alliance, were sworn in, 73 lawmakers voted confidence in the government while 47 voted against, with no abstentions.

"This is an important day for the state of Israel," Netanyahu earlier told the 120-seat Knesset, as he was set to start a fourth consecutive term in office and a fifth term in total, one week before the start of his corruption trial in a Jerusalem court.

On May 7, Israel's top court rejected petitions against the indicted PM, removing the final obstacle for the unity government.

"The time has come to extend the Israeli law over (Israel's) settlements (in the occupied West Bank) and to start a new chapter in the history of Zionism," Netanyahu said during Sunday's session, a step that would not push peace with the Palestinian further away but rather bring it "closer".

Former military chief Gantz justified his "difficult decision" to break his vow never to serve with the indicted Netanyahu, saying the choice had been "either unity, or kind of civil war".

Australian Associated Press