Minister of National Security in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, Itamar Ben Gvir, threatened today, Tuesday, to withdraw from the government due to any attempt to reach an "unwise" agreement with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to recover hostages held by the group in Gaza. Ben Gvir, a far-right partner in the government belonging to the Jewish Power party, stated that "an unwise agreement = dismantling the government," amidst media reports indicating that Israel is considering, through Qatari and Egyptian mediation, a long-term ceasefire of its military operations against Hamas in Gaza.
The Jewish Power party holds six seats out of 64 that have supported Netanyahu's far-right coalition in the parliament, which consists of 120 seats, since prior to the Gaza war. After the outbreak of the war, Netanyahu included the centrist National Unity Party, which holds 12 seats, into the emergency government.
Ben Gvir and another partner in the far-right coalition, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from the Religious Zionism party, expressed their anger over being excluded from Netanyahu's small decision-making council regarding the war. They called for the continuation of military operations and the resettlement in Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005. Netanyahu has ruled out the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there but asserts that Gaza will remain under Israel's security control after the war.
