Smotrich:’If we surrender to Hamas’s demands as Minister Gallant wants, then we have lost the war.’
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Following the news that the IDF recovered 6 bodies of recently killed hostages in Gaza, a contentious cabinet meeting Sunday exposed the rift between Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on one side and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the other regarding a ceasefire deal and the IDF’s presence in the Philadelphi corridor.
Gallant was opposed to the cabinet’s vote on Thursday affirming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that the IDF maintain a presence in the Philadelphi corridor as a condition for a ceasefire deal.
The Defense Minister urged on Sunday, as he had during the vote, that negotiating with Hamas and making concessions was the only way to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
He said, “Creating the conditions for the release of the hostages means that they have to give up something, and we also have to give up something.”
However, Smotrich replied, “Hamas must pay a price. We must take a piece of the Gaza Strip for every hostage who is murdered. Hamas wants us to surrender.”
Smotrich added that caving to such an agreement would be equivalent to “holding the entire country hostage,” and he said, “If we surrender to Hamas’s demands as Minister Gallant wants, then we have lost the war.”
Ben-Gvir confronted Gallant with his opposition early in the war to the death penalty for terrorists. He said, “You argued that we must not enact the death penalty for terrorists because they will kill our hostages. Now it has been proven that they are murderers of hostages, regardless of what we do.”
He added, “Now is our opportunity to deter them – let Hamas pay a price and understand that we will not be intimidated.”
Minister Eli Cohen made the point that conceding to Hamas would reward their behavior and lead them to repeat it in the future.
He said, “If we back down, they will learn that they can murder our hostages, and we give up.”
By the end, Gallant made a comment that revealed he wasn’t actually demanding Israel give up control of the Philadelphi corridor but to indicate as much in order to secure the release a number of hostages and move back into the area.
“We will conquer the Philadelphi Corridor within hours when we have 20-30 hostages in our hands,” Gallant said.
He reminded the ministers that he said, “Only military pressure will be effective.”