From the Liveblog of
Friday, January 17, 2025
Ben Gvir reiterates that he’ll quit if Gaza truce is approved: ‘I love PM Netanyahu… but the deal is disastrous’
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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir reiterates his Otzma Yehudit party will leave the coalition if the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas that was signed in Doha last night is approved, as is expected to happen today or tomorrow.
Lauding his own work strengthening the Israel Police, Prisons Service and Border Police as national security minister, he says he will leave the government “with a heavy heart.”
“I love Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will make sure he continues to be prime minister, but I will leave because the deal that was signed is disastrous; it releases hundreds of terrorists with blood on their hands, who, upon their release, will seek to murder the next Jew; it allows the return of thousands of terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip with weapons — when their goal is to murder Jews; it harms Israel’s ability to defend itself on the Philadelphia axis and at other important points; and it undoes all the war successes that cost us so much blood,” he says in a lengthy statement.
The far-right minister also reiterates that if the IDF resumes fighting Hamas after a pause to free hostages held in Gaza since October 7, 2023, his party will offer to return to the government.
“We will not overthrow this government and we will support it from the outside, but we will not be partners in a defeatist agreement,” he says.
The Times of Israel Community.