Live Update
From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 13, 2025
Gantz backs hostage deal, in swipe at Smotrich, says not bringing them home would be ‘catastrophe’
National Unity leader Benny Gantz says his party gives full backing to the emerging hostage-ceasefire deal, swiping at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who said it would be a “catastrophe.”
“Reaching a plan to return our hostages is a supreme value and a strategic necessity — failing to return them and abandoning them is a national catastrophe,” Gantz says in a statement.
“National Unity will give full political backing to the plan for their return,” he says.