Israel’s security cabinet voted today to approve the hostage release/ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza, and recommended that the government adopt it. “Following an evaluation of all diplomatic, security and humanitarian aspects, and while understanding that the proposed deal supports the achievement of the objectives of the war, the Security Cabinet has recommended that the Government approve the proposed framework,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. The full cabinet convened immediately afterwards to discuss the deal and is expected to approve it by a wide margin.
Far right wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir both voted against the deal, but while Ben Gvir announced he would take his Jewish Power party out of the government, Smotrich reportedly made a deal with Prime Minister Netanyahu to stay in the government in return for a promise that the IDF will return to fighting Hamas in Gaza after the first 42 day phase of the ceasefire.
Ben Gvir, on the other hand, is leaving the government once the deal is approved. “I love Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will make sure he continues to be prime minister, but I will leave because the deal that was signed is disastrous; it releases hundreds of terrorists with blood on their hands, who, upon their release, will seek to murder the next Jew; it allows the return of thousands of terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip with weapons—when their goal is to murder Jews; it harms Israel’s ability to defend itself on the Philadelphia axis and at other important points; and it undoes all the war successes that cost us so much blood,” he said in a lengthy statement.
