Far-right ministers Smotrich, Ben Gvir fume over Netanyahu’s decision to send negotiating team to Doha

Far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich fume over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that Israel will send a high-level negotiating team to Doha on Sunday amid efforts to secure a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

In a post on X, National Security Minister Ben Gvir says that the decision was not approved by the cabinet and asserts that Israel should rather be “starving Hamas of oxygen.”

“This is the safest path to victory and the return of the hostages — rather than a path of deals that will allow Hamas to reorganize its forces in the Strip so that they can harm our soldiers, and restore its military capabilities,” he says, while also praising the prime minister and the military for “the positive trend over the last two months.”

For his part, Finance Minister Smotrich claims that “Qatar’s continued involvement in the negotiations for the return of the hostages is a grave mistake,” and says he “deeply regrets” Netanyahu’s decision to send Mossad chief David Barnea to Doha.

“Qatar is an enemy country that supports Hamas and backs its positions in the negotiations,” he writes on X. “Qatar owns Al Jazeera and severely harms Israel’s global image… Nothing good can come from its involvement.”

Smotrich says that the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, will only be achieved with military pressure “as our heroic soldiers are currently doing in the north of the Gaza Strip.”