Israeli minister uses Temple Mount visit to pressure Netanyahu not to agree to deal with Hamas

National Security Minister prays at Temple Mount for return of Israeli captives from Gaza ‘without surrender,’ calls for Israel to shut off gas transfers to Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s National Security Minister ascended the Temple Mount Thursday, publicizing his visit in a bid to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to agree to a hostage deal with the Hamas terror organization.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, chief of the Otzma Yehudit party and a senior member of Netanyahu’s coalition government, released a video statement Thursday morning filmed on the Temple Mount.

In the video, the minister said he was visiting the most important holy site in Judaism in order to “pray for the hostages, for them to be returned home, but without a weak deal, without surrendering.”

Ben-Gvir, formerly a self-declared disciple of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane – founder of the Jewish Defense League and Knesset Member for the Kach party who advocated the transfer of Israel’s Arab population – also called on Netanyahu to resist calls for a deal with Hamas that would secure some of the hostages’ release – in exchange for a ceasefire and freeing of hundreds of hostages.

“I am praying and am also working hard so that the prime minister will have the strength not to fold and to go on to victory; to ramp up the military pressure, to shut off their fuel — to win.”

The minister issued the video statement two days after Mossad director David Barnea and several cabinet ministers urged Netanyahu on Tuesday to agree to the hostage deal now on the table, according to anonymous sources cited by various Hebrew media Thursday.

Referring to the five female soldiers in Hamas captivity, Barnea said that negotiating over recent red lines set by Netanyahu “could take long weeks. The girls in captivity don’t have time to wait for changes in the proposal under discussion.”

Ministers Gila Gamliel and Miri Regev expressed their support for an agreement as well.

“There is no perfect deal but there is an opportunity here that must not be missed,” Regev reportedly said, calling the hostage situation “a bleeding wound” in Israeli society.