National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked an outcry Monday by claiming he had repeatedly foiled a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian terror group Hamas over the year, and asking Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to join him in thwarting the possible agreement currently on the table.
The remarks sparked strong criticism from relatives of a number of hostages and opposition lawmakers who have long accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of refusing a ceasefire agreement in order to maintain his ruling coalition. Ben Gvir and Smotrich have already indicated that they would bring down the government rather than accept a deal ending the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, Smotrich has not specifically reiterated this threat in recent days.
In a message https://twitter.com/itamarbengvir/status/1879075942015893956 on the social network said they had managed to stop previous efforts to reach a deal.
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“I ask my colleague, Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to join forces with mine and together we will oppose the emerging agreement,” he said.
“Over the past year, thanks to our political strength, we have managed to prevent the implementation of this agreement on several occasions,” he said.
However, Ben Gvir stressed that he no longer had the power to stop what he called the “surrender deal” because Netanyahu expanded the coalition by including the foreign minister’s Tikva Hadasha party, Gideon Saar, in September 2024.
Rachel Moshe, mother of Oz Ezra Moshe, murdered during the Nova Festival massacre, attacks Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Finance Committee meeting in the Knesset, January 13, 2025. (Credit : Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“Recently, other actors supporting the agreement have joined the government, and we no longer hold the balance of power,” he lamented.
“Otzma Yehudit does not have the capacity to prevent the agreement alone. I propose that we go together to see the Prime Minister and inform him that if he concludes this agreement, we will resign from the government,” Ben Gvir said, addressing Smotrich.
“I insist that even though we are in opposition, we will not bring down the Prime Minister, but this cooperation is our only way to prevent this capitulation agreement… and to ensure that the death of hundreds of soldiers is not in vain,” declared Ben Gvir.
In his message, Ben Gvir listed the reasons why he opposes the proposed three-phase deal, which provides for the release of dozens of hostages held in Gaza, alive or dead.
Ben Gvir also stressed that the agreement, which will include the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners incarcerated for undermining Israel’s security, will enable the rehabilitation of terrorist groups in Gaza and revive the threat to residents of the border areas. He also warned that the current deal does not guarantee the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza, saying it “seals the fate of the rest of the hostages who are not included in this death deal.”
The two far-right parties ran together in the last parliamentary elections, but they operate independently. Ben Gvir and Smotrich have also clashed in recent weeks on the subject of funding the police, which falls under the Ministry of National Security, as part of the budget.
Although Smotrich did not immediately respond publicly to Ben Gvir’s call, on Monday he called the agreement a “disaster.”
Ben Gvir’s comments about having thwarted agreements quickly sparked outrage.
Gil Dickmann (center) whose cousin Carmel Gat was kidnapped – at a Knesset National Security Committee hearing, November 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“He personally prevented a deal from being reached for political reasons,” said Gil Dickmann, cousin of hostage Carmel Gat, who was executed by her captors in a Gaza tunnel last summer. “If he hadn’t been there, Carmel would still be alive today. »
Dickmann asked Netanyahu and Smotrich not to give in to Ben Gvir’s “blackmail.”
The Israeli military said in September that it had concluded that Hamas terrorists had murdered Carmel along with five other hostages, as IDF troops approached the tunnel in which they were being held.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Ben Gvir’s comments confirmed his own claims that the government had failed to reach a deal for political reasons. Netanyahu and his government have long denied the allegations, blaming Hamas for the lack of agreement.
Opposition leader and head of the Yesh Atid party, MK Yair Lapid, leading a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on January 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“For more than a year I have been saying that they cannot reach an agreement for the hostages for political reasons and everyone tells me that it is not possible, that it is shocking and that I cannot not say such a thing,” Lapid said on X.
“Today, Ben Gvir published a video and said on camera, without batting an eyelid, that this is the terrible truth,” he added.
For his part, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter rejected the idea that Ben Gvir and Smotrich would have the ability to derail the current agreement.
“Ben Gvir and Smotrich know very well that their votes will not decide the return of our children from Gaza,” he wrote on X.
“For now, we must make a difficult choice, but it is our duty! »
Dichter promised that the cabinet would ensure that all hostages, “every last one, return to their families.”
Obviously, the deal would have to be approved by the security cabinet and the government, but not by a Knesset vote. Members of Netanyahu’s government will likely vote in favor of the deal even if the two far-right leaders oppose it.
Kan public broadcaster reported that Smotrich was scheduled to meet with Netanyahu later on Tuesday about the “truce for hostage release” deal.
MK Bezalel Smotrich, head of the HaTzionut HaDatit party, (right) and MK Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, at the Knesset plenum, December 28, 2022. (Credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Sources close to Smotrich said the minister had thought through the details and ramifications of the deal and would make a decision regardless of any political consequences.
Following reports of a major breakthrough in talks on Monday, Smotrich said his party, HaTzionut HaDatit, would not accept such a deal, which he said would constitute a “catastrophe for Israel’s national security.” .
On Sunday, a political source told Walla that Netanyahu hoped to convince Smotrich to stay in the coalition, even though he did not support the deal. Observers assume that Ben Gvir will leave the government once he votes against it. Lapid promised a “safety net” to allow Netanyahu to move forward with the deal even if the coalition loses its majority in the Knesset.
The war in Gaza broke out when some 6,000 Gazans including 3,800 terrorists led by Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, kidnapped 251 hostages from all ages, and committed numerous atrocities and using sexual violence as a weapon on a large scale.
Protesters demanding the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in front of the Kirya army headquarters, in Tel Aviv, January 13, 2025. (Credit: Itaï Ron/Flash90)
An estimated 94 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023 are still in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 hostages whose deaths were confirmed by the Israeli military.
At the end of November 2023, Hamas released 105 civilians during a week-long truce. Four hostages had previously been released. Eight living hostages were rescued by soldiers and the remains of 40 hostages were recovered, including those of three Israelis who were accidentally killed by the IDF.
The Palestinian terrorist group also holds two Israeli civilians who entered the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
