Ben Gvir says he gave PM deadline to dismantle Hamas, enact death penalty for terrorists

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a deadline to dismantle Hamas and enact the death penalty for terrorists, threatening that if his conditions are not met, his far-right Otzma Yehudit party will quit the government.

“What I want, and this is also what Netanyahu promised me, the dismantlement of Hamas and if he doesn’t dismantle Hamas he knows very well what will happen,” Ben Gvir tells Channel 12’s “Meet The Press” in an interview.

Asked if he presented the premier with a deadline, Ben Gvir replies that he has, but declines to specify what it was.

The far-right minister says his demands include implementing a death penalty for terrorists, something he says was promised to him in his party’s coalition agreement. He says that doing so is “moral” and will prevent future kidnappings.

“Netanyahu promised me this for the last two years. Every time I asked, our dear prime minister, whom I respect very much, told me: ‘Listen, Ben Gvir, we have hostages, the hostages will be released alive and we will do it.’ Now there are no excuses. The prime minister knows I am serious,” he adds.

Ben Gvir recently threatened to bolt the government if Hamas “continues to exist” after the hostages are freed. Earlier this year, Ben Gvir’s party quit the coalition for several months to protest the acceptance of a previous, partial deal.

Turning to the issue of crime in the Arab sector, Ben Gvir brags about his policies despite a rise in murders under the current government and claims that “the majority” of Arab murder victims come from “crime families, one fighting the other.”