Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Thursday evening he would pull his Jewish Power party out of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government if it implemented the Gaza ceasefire deal.
US-led mediators said on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed a multiphase deal to halt the 15-month-old war and free the 98 hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s cabinet is set to meet on Friday to approve the agreement, which Ben-Gvir described as “reckless” and a “prize for Hamas” that he said his party could not support.
“[This accord] will lead to the end of the war, before Hamas is defeated and we have not achieved the goals of the war,” Ben-Gvir said in a press conference.
“When we see and hear the cheers and dancing in Gaza, and the cheers in the [occupied West Bank] we understand which side surrendered in this deal.”
However, Ben-Gvir left open the possibility that he would rejoin Netanyahu’s coalition if the war was “renewed” with the goal of “decisively” defeating Hamas, adding that he would not work to topple the long-serving premier if he was in opposition.
In response, Netanyahu’s Likud party issued a statement saying that “whoever dismantles a rightwing government will be remembered ignominiously throughout history”.
It added that the deal would allow Israel to renew the war with Hamas “with American guarantees”.
Ben-Gvir and his ultranationalist ally, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have repeatedly threatened to leave Netanyahu’s government if it accepts an agreement that ends the war.
The departure of Jewish Power would leave the premier’s coalition with a two-seat majority in Israel’s parliament. It would also pile pressure on Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party to follow suit and withdraw.
Ben-Gvir called on parliamentarians from Religious Zionism and Likud to “fulfil what you’ve said over the past year” and oppose the deal.
While Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are not thought to have enough support in the cabinet to torpedo the agreement should Netanyahu put it to a vote, if they both pulled their far-right parties out of the government, it would lose its parliamentary majority.
Israel’s political system does not bar minority governments, and opposition parties have said that they are prepared to prop up Netanyahu’s coalition if needed.
But the loss of his two allies would shake Netanyahu’s hold on power and could lead to early elections.
Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said earlier on Thursday he was “confident” after talking to negotiators that the Gaza ceasefire would come into force as planned on Sunday, the day before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The multiphase deal, based on a plan first set out by US President Joe Biden last year, involves an initial 42-day truce during which 33 hostages, including children, women, the sick and the elderly, would be released at intervals.
In exchange, Palestinians would be freed from Israel’s jails, far more aid would go into Gaza and there would be a partial Israeli troop withdrawal from the enclave.
By the 16th day of the truce, Israel and Hamas are scheduled to begin negotiating the second phase of the deal, which would involve the release of the remaining living hostages, a full Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war.
The final phase would involve the return of all remaining bodies of hostages who had died, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel, during which fighters from the group killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took 250 hostages.
Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and fuelled a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.
Credit: Source link
