Ben Gvir says he repeatedly foiled hostage deals, urges Smotrich to help him stop this one
Far-right Otzma Yehudit leader says over the past year ‘we managed to prevent this deal from going ahead, time after time’; Religious Zionism party said set to meet Netanyahu
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked outcry Monday when he claimed he had repeatedly foiled a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas over the past year, while calling on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to again join him in thwarting an emerging agreement.
Ben Gvir’s remarks provoked sharp criticism from the relatives of a number of hostages and opposition lawmakers who have long accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of balking at a ceasefire agreement in order to preserve his coalition. Ben Gvir and Smotrich have previously said they would bring down the government rather than accept a deal that ends the war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but Smotrich has not specifically repeated that threat in recent days.
In a post on X, together with a video in which he called on far-right ally Smotrich to join him in telling Netanyahu that they would bolt the coalition if the current hostage deal proposal went through, Ben Gvir said that they have managed to stop previous efforts to reach an agreement.
“I call on my colleague, Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to join forces with me, and together we’ll work against the nascent deal,” he said.
“In the last year, using our political power, we managed to prevent this deal from going ahead, time after time,” he stated.
However, Ben Gvir said he now lacks the power to stop what he termed the “surrender deal” because Netanyahu expanded the coalition by bringing in Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party in September last year.
“Recently, other actors who support the deal have joined the government, and we no longer hold the balance of power,” he lamented.
“Otzma Yehudit alone does not have the ability to prevent the deal. I suggest that we go together to the prime minister and inform him that if he passes the deal we will resign from the government,” Ben Gvir declared, addressing Smotrich.
“I emphasize that even if we are in opposition, we will not bring down the prime minister, but this cooperation is our only way to prevent the surrender deal… and ensure that the deaths of hundreds of soldiers were not in vain,” Ben Gvir said.
In his post, Ben Gvir listed his reasons for opposing the proposed three-phase deal, which would see the freeing of dozens of hostages held in Gaza, both alive and dead.
Ben Gvir said the deal, which will include the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners from Israel, would enable the rehabilitation of terror groups in Gaza and bring back the threat to residents in border areas. He also warned that the current deal does not immediately ensure the release of all hostages held in Gaza, claiming it “seals the fate of the rest of the hostages who are not included in the death deal.”
The two far-right parties ran together in the last election, but operate independently. Ben Gvir and Smotrich have also been at odds in recent weeks over funding for the police, which comes under the National Security Ministry, in the budget.
While Smotrich did not immediately issue a public response to Ben Gvir’s call, he branded the deal a “catastrophe” on Monday.
Ben Gvir’s comments on thwarting deals quickly sparked outrage.
“He is openly admitting that he stopped a deal with his own hands for political gain,” said Gil Dickmann, a relative of Carmel Gat, who was killed by her captors in a Gaza tunnel last year. “If it were not for him, Carmel would be alive today.”
Dickmann called on Netanyahu and Smotrich to not cave to Ben Gvir’s “bloodsucking.”
The IDF has assessed that Hamas guards murdered Gat along with five other captives last September as IDF troops closed in on the location.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said Ben Gvir’s comments proved his claims that the government failed to make a deal for political reasons. Netanyahu and the government have long denied the allegations, blaming Hamas for the lack of agreement.
“For more than a year I have been saying that ‘they are not reaching a hostage deal for political reasons’ and everyone tells me that this cannot be, that it’s shocking, and how could I say such a thing,” Lapid posted on X.
“And today Ben Gvir puts out a video and says to the camera, without blinking, that is the terrible truth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter dismissed the idea that Ben Gvir and Smotrich had the ability to stop the current deal.
“Ben Gvir and Smotrich know very well that their votes won’t decide the return of our children from Gaza,” he wrote on X. “At the moment, we have to make a tough choice — but that is our duty!”
Dichter vowed that the cabinet would ensure that all hostages, “until the last of them, will return to their families.”
The deal would apparently require approval by the security cabinet and by the government, but not a Knesset vote. The members of Netanyahu’s government would likely vote in favor a deal even if the two far-right leaders were to oppose it.
The Kan public broadcaster reported that Smotrich was to meet with Netanyahu later Tuesday about the hostage deal.
Sources in Smotrich’s orbit said that the minister has been in deliberations on the details and ramifications of the deal and will make a decision independent of political consequences.
Following swirling reports indicating a major breakthrough in the talks Monday, Smotrich warned that the far-right Religious Zionism party he heads would not go along with a deal that he said would constitute a “catastrophe for Israel’s national security.”
On Sunday, a political source told the Walla news outlet that Netanyahu was hoping to convince Smotrich to remain in the coalition even if he does not support a deal, with observers assuming that Ben Gvir will quit the government after voting against the agreement. Lapid has promised a “safety net” to enable Netanyahu to advance a deal even if the coalition loses its Knesset majority.
It is believed that 94 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. The hostages were abducted when Hamas led thousands of terrorists in a devastating attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
