Minister will withhold gov’t support unless Netanyahu gives more details on Hamas deal

On Friday, US President Joe Biden urged Israel to accept a 3-part ceasefire and hostage deal.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said his Otzma Yehudit party would refuse to vote with the coalition unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provided more details about the newest hostage release and ceasefire deal.

“As long as the prime minister continues to hide the details of the deal, Otzma Yehudit will disrupt his coalition,” Ben Gvir tweeted.

Ben Gvir and other ministers said they would refuse to agree with a hostage release deal that requires a complete and permanent ceasefire, a condition imposed by Hamas up until now.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden urged Israel to accept a 3-part ceasefire and hostage deal and declared, “It’s time for this war to end.”

The first phase of the ceasefire would require the release of the women, elderly, wounded, and ill hostages, as well as the bodies of deceased hostages.

The second phase of the deal would see the release of the remaining hostages, including male soldiers, and a withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.

The third phase would usher in “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza” and the release of the remainder of the bodies of Israeli hostages.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Ben Gvir have threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu approves the ceasefire deal.

Ben Gvir said he and other ministers would “dismantle the government” if the deal were approved and called it a “total defeat” for Israel.

Smotrich “made it clear” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his party “will not agree to the end of the war before the destruction of Hamas, nor to doing serious damage to the achievements of the war so far through the withdrawal of the IDF and the return of Gazans to northern Gaza, and nor to the wholesale release of terrorists who, God forbid, will return to murdering Jews.”

Smotrich sought support from ultra-orthodox leaders earlier in the week, but on Tuesday, it was announced that Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties expressed support for the hostage deal with Hamas currently on the table.

“The faction decided to fully support the Israeli proposal, which includes far-reaching measures for the return of the abducted and the observance of the mitzvot of redeeming captives,” read a statement released by the Shas Party.

ben gvirBenjamin NetanyahuBezalel Smotrichhostage deal