Finance minister said to have convened with bereaved families, relatives of hostages, and strategists to formulate pressure tactics for stopping ceasefire-hostage deal after 1st stage
Times of Israel
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently held a meeting aimed at organizing a public campaign to stop the hostage deal in Gaza after the first phase ends and to resume the war, as he has been calling for, Channel 12 reported Wednesday.
The network said the meeting included bereaved families of Israelis killed in the war, relatives of hostages — apparently those who oppose the deal — and strategists.
Halting the ceasefire deal after the first stage would leave nearly two-thirds of the 91 hostages in captivity, as only 33 are to be released in the first part of the three-phase ceasefire.
A participant said the meeting focused on mobilizing public and international support for resuming combat.
The participant, who was not named in the report, told Channel 12: ‘We were invited to an urgent, secret, and unofficial meeting. Its purpose was to formulate a strategy to pressure the public so that we could resume combat immediately after the first phase of the deal concludes.’
In response, Smotrich’s office said he ‘regularly meets with bereaved families and families of hostages. The content of these personal discussions always remains confidential.’
Gil Dickman, cousin of Carmel Gat, who was murdered in a Hamas tunnel in Rafah along with five other hostages at the end of August as Israeli forces closed in on them, panned Smotrich for his duplicity.
‘On the one hand, Smotrich welcomes the hostages who return, and with the other, applies political pressure on the families of hostages…and tries to shoot down the deal and abandon hostages to be murdered?’ Dickman said to Channel 12.
Far-right Smotrich, who has called to encourage Gazans to emigrate and for the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian enclave, has also vowed to not allow a hostage deal that abandons Israel’s stated war goal of destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities in Gaza.
The current deal, reached via international mediators, envisions a three-step process over the course of 42 weeks, although only the first stage has been agreed upon so far. During that period, 33 living and dead hostages are to be released, among them women, elderly men, and captives who are unwell.
In return, Israel is supposed to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners.
Some families of hostages criticized the deal, fearing that if it does not progress beyond the first stage, the remaining hostages will be stuck in Gaza indefinitely.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to resume fighting if the negotiations regarding the terms of phase two do not see Hamas cede both military and governing powers in Gaza, which the terror group is not expected to do.
Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, has said that Netanyahu promised him that fighting will be renewed after the first phase ends. Religious Zionism says it will quit the coalition if there is no return to the war at that point.
Disagreement over the ceasefire deal, which started on Sunday with the release of three women, has left Netanyahu’s coalition teetering.
Fellow far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir already pulled his Otzma Yehudit party out of the coalition in protest to the deal, though he said he would not bring down the government. Netanyahu still controls a majority in the Knesset, but would lose that edge if Religious Zionism also bolts the coalition.
It is believed that 91 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The terror group released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, 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 body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.