From the Liveblog of
Friday, January 17, 2025
Ben Gvir makes last-minute plea for ministers to vote against hostage deal: ‘It’s not too late, we can stop this deal’
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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir issues a last-minute plea for other members of the government to vote against the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas that was approved by the security cabinet a short while ago.
He says that he is “even more terrified” of the deal given new details released about the Palestinian security prisoners who will be released in exchange for Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
“Everyone knows that these terrorists will try to harm again, try to kill again,” he says in a video statement.
Last night Ben Gvir announced that his far-right Otzma Yehudit party will leave the coalition if the deal with Hamas is approved.
“I call on my friends in the Likud and in Religious Zionism [parties], it is not yet too late, we still have the cabinet meeting, we can stop this deal, join me, we can stop it.”
The full cabinet is scheduled to convene shortly for a final discussion to ratify the agreement, which was announced by mediators on Wednesday.
The deal is set to go into effect at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, with the first of 33 hostages to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire agreement expected to be released at 4 p.m.
The Times of Israel Community.