Ministers threaten to bring down Israeli government over ‘reckless’ Gaza ceasefire plan

Right-wing allies of Benjamin Netanyahu have rejected a US-brokered ceasefire proposal to end the war in Gaza as “total surrender” to Hamas, threatening to bring down the Israeli government if it is enacted.

US President Joe Biden unveiled the contours of a deal on Friday in which the fighting would be halted and Israeli hostages held in Gaza released. The ultimate goal, Biden said, would be an end to the conflict.

After the end of the Sabbath on Saturday night, two senior far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition warned the long-serving premier against accepting the “reckless” deal and urged him to continue the war until the “complete elimination” of Hamas.

The proposal would be “a victory for terrorism and a security danger to the State of Israel,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a statement.

“Agreeing to such a deal is not total victory — but total defeat,” he added, threatening to “dissolve the government”.

Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister, said he would not be part of a government that agreed to “end the war without destroying Hamas and returning all the hostages”. He criticised proposals to withdraw the Israeli military from Gaza, release Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, and return displaced Gazans to their homes in the north of the shattered enclave.

“We demand the continuation of the fighting until the destruction of Hamas and the return of all the hostages,” he said.

The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, issued a joint statement on Saturday calling on both Hamas and Israel to finalise the terms of the deal as Biden had outlined. All three states have for months attempted to broker an agreement that would halt the fighting in Gaza, but talks have stalled over fundamental gaps between the two warring parties — in particular over whether any ceasefire would be permanent.

In their statement, the three countries added that the proposal “will bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families. This deal offers a road map for a permanent ceasefire and ending the crisis.”

According to Biden, the three-phase agreement would begin with a “full and complete ceasefire” over six weeks, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from “densely populated” areas of Gaza, and the return of some hostages, including Americans, alongside the release of some Palestinian prisoners.

A second phase would involve the release of all hostages and a “permanent cessation of hostilities” combined with a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

The third phase would relate to the “reconstruction” of Gaza, designed to lead to broader stabilisation in the Middle East.

Netanyahu’s office has issued two non-committal statements, saying: “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”

Netanyahu’s office added that it would “insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place. The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter.”

Hamas said in a statement that it “positively views” Biden’s speech and that it was ready to deal “in a constructive manner with any proposal that is based on a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal [of Israeli forces] from the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction [of Gaza], and the return of displaced people to their homes, along with the completion of a genuine prisoner swap deal”, as long as Israel “clearly announces commitment to such a deal”.

With pressure mounting within Netanyahu’s own coalition and right-wing base against the ceasefire proposal, opposition leader Yair Lapid on Saturday again offered to provide a “safety net” to the ruling coalition in the event that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich pulled out their parties.

“The Israeli government cannot ignore President Biden’s significant speech. There is a deal on the table and it needs to be done,” Lapid wrote on X.

Tens of thousands of Israelis converged in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night in the weekly demonstration for the release of the Israeli hostages seized by Hamas during its October 7 attack that triggered the war. Some 125 are still being held, with about a third believed by Israeli officials to be dead.

“Yes to the Netanyahu Deal! Bring them home now!” they yelled.