Otzma Yehudit to quit coalition Sunday; Religious Zionism condemns deal but remains

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The Times of Israel:

ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 471


Otzma Yehudit to quit coalition Sunday; Religious Zionism condemns deal but remains

Otzma leader Ben Gvir says PM offered to fire IDF chief of Staff and credit him for it, a claim Netanyahu says is a lie

By Sam Sokol, Amy Spiro and ToI Staff

18 January 2025, 10:35 pm



Left: National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit party head Itamar Ben Gvir, January 16, 2025; Right: Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party head Bezalel Smotrich, January 13, 2025

(Both photos by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)


The far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Saturday it would follow through on its threat to leave the government, with members to hand in resignations Sunday morning in protest of Israel’s acceptance of a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

“In light of the approval of the reckless agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas… the Otzma Yehudit party will submit letters of resignation from the government and the coalition tomorrow morning, and ministers Ben Gvir, [Yitzhak] Wasserlauf and [Amichay] Eliyahu, as well as committee chairs MKs [Zvika] Fogel and [Limor Son] Har-Melech and MK [Yitzhak] Kroizer, will leave their positions,” the party said in a statement.

Fellow far-right party Religious Zionism, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, will remain in the government and coalition for now, despite opposing the agreement, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached an understanding with Smotrich to keep his faction in the fold.

Israel is set to release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murder, in return for 33 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip during the first, 42-day phase of the deal, agreed to by Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Qatar on Friday and approved by the government in the early hours of Saturday.

In an interview with Channel 12 on Saturday evening after Otzma Yehudit released its statement, Ben Gvir said that Netanyahu, trying to persuade him not to resign, had offered to fire IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and give Ben Gvir credit for the move. Ben Gvir has long criticized the army chief as insufficiently tough on Hamas.

Ben Gvir said the prime minister had also offered the same promises he reportedly made to Smotrich of increased settlement building.

“Ben Gvir wasn’t offered anything,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement in response to the interview. “It’s a total lie.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz also issued a statement saying, “The chief of staff’s term is not tied and will not be tied to any political issue.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir holds a press conference together with members of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party in Jerusalem. January 16, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)


The national security minister contrasted his imminent resignation with the fact that others, such as Smotrich, who had threatened to quit were not doing so.

“I’m a man of principle,” Ben Gvir said, calling the deal “terrible.”

Ben Gvir said the agreement with the terror group was setting the stage for the next kidnappings and decried the impending release of Palestinian terrorists who have carried out murders in exchange for hostages as part of the deal.

Religious Zionism stays in government

Smotrich, meanwhile, condemned the “terrible” deal in a video statement Saturday, and declared that he will “not sit in a government that, God forbid, will stop the war and not continue until complete victory over Hamas.” But he said his party is set to remain in the government, after Netanyahu agreed to a number of his demands.

The deal will see Israel and Hamas continue negotiations amid the first phase for a permanent ceasefire. Smotrich has called for Israel to resume fighting after the first phase has been implemented. In his statement Saturday, he said that he was happy that some of the hostages would return home, but warned that “a difficult task awaits us immediately afterward — to return and fight until victory.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks in a Facebook live broadcast on January 8, 2025. (Facebook screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)


“Unfortunately, we were unable to prevent this dangerous deal, but we insisted and were able to ensure, through a government decision, in the cabinet, and other ways, that the war will not end, in any way, without achieving its full goals — foremost among them the complete destruction of Hamas in Gaza,” he declared.

“We demanded and received a commitment to completely change the method of war,” he continued, including “through a gradual takeover of the entire Gaza Strip, the lifting of the restrictions imposed on us by the Biden administration, and full control of the Strip, so that humanitarian aid will not reach Hamas as it has until now.

“There is no other way to achieve the goals of the war,” Smotrich said.

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke plumes rising from explosions above destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on January 16, 2025. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Hostage families urge implementation

Relatives of hostages, giving a weekly statement to the press outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday, urged US President-elect Donald Trump to demand Netanyahu publicly declare that the multiphase deal will be implemented in full.

“We are asking you to stand on guard. Ensure the deal is implemented in full and doesn’t come apart. Demand Netanyahu declare that the war is over,” said Danny Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat, taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, is set to be released during phase one of the deal, though it is unclear he is alive.

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker was kidnapped in the attack and is not set to be released in the deal’s first phase, accused “the extremists in the government” of working to prevent the agreement’s full implementation, and accused Netanyahu of making promises to Smotrich, “that contradict the commitment to end the war, and that endanger the agreement.”

She called on Netanyahu to publicly announce that the war is over and that the terms of the deal would be fully carried out.

The 33 hostages set to be returned in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Row 1 (L-R): Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Arbel Yehud, Doron Steinbrecher, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas; Row 2: Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Danielle Gilboa, Naama Levy, Ohad Ben-Ami, Gadi Moshe Moses; Row 3: Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon, Eli Sharabi, Itzik Elgarat, Shlomo Mansour, Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz; Row 4: Tsahi Idan, Hisham al-Sayed, Yarden Bibas, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn, Omer Wenkert, Sasha Trufanov; Row 5: Eliya Cohen, Or Levy, Avera Mengistu, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov (all photos courtesy)


Though most hostages’ families support the deal, the Tikva Forum, representing more hardline families, opposes it, expressing concern that the multiphase exchange may in practice leave some hostages in captivity, while strengthening Hamas and paving the way to future attacks by releasing terrorists.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will come into effect on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time. Hours later, the first Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners will be released under the agreement.

It is believed that 94 of the hostages abducted during the Hamas onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.