Tzachi Hanegbi

Tzachi Hanegbi was born in 1957 in Jerusalem

Hanegbi was born in Jerusalem in 1957 to Geulah Cohen and Emmanuel Hanegbi, both members of the Lehi underground. His mother later became a Knesset member. After his parents divorced, he grew up with his mother in Tel Aviv.

He served in the Paratroopers Brigade and later worked as a reporter for Army Radio. He studied international relations and then law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He headed the Israeli students' union until 1982, and in that period he received a suspended sentence over campus violence against Arab students.

He ran the office of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and entered the Knesset for Likud in 1988. He served as Minister of Health, Justice, the Environment, Transportation and Internal Security. In 2005 he moved to Kadima with Ariel Sharon.

In 2010 a Jerusalem court cleared him of election bribery, fraud and breach of trust but convicted him of perjury, and later attached moral turpitude. He left the Knesset, returned to Likud in 2012 and was reelected in 2013. He later served as Deputy Foreign Minister and as a minister in the Netanyahu government.

He lost his seat in the 2022 election and was appointed head of the National Security Council. Netanyahu dismissed him in October 2025. He lives in Mevaseret Zion.