Opposition lawmakers and the relatives of the Gaza hostages welcomed US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza on Monday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed the vision in the two leaders’ joint press conference at the White House.

Although some members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition vocally opposed Trump’s plan, the chair of the left-wing Democrats party, Yair Golan, pledged the premier a safety net to ensure that the government had the necessary votes for it to be approved in the event that coalition members resign in protest, while Blue and White chief Benny Gantz vowed to protect the deal from “petty politics.”

Netanyahu’s ally, Shas chair Aryeh Deri, welcomed the deal, as did some members of the premier’s own Likud party, although several expressed skepticism about it, with some appearing to reject it outright, saying Israel ought to maintain full control of Gaza.

The premier’s far-right coalition partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, were mum on Trump’s proposal, even as they blasted Netanyahu for apologizing to Qatar for Israel’s botched September 9 strike on the Hamas leadership in Doha.

At least one member of Ben Gvir’s Otzmah Yehudit party, MK Yitzhak Kroizer, was vocal about finding Trump’s plan unacceptable, branding it a “total failure.”

Members of the far-right party have received a summons for an urgent faction meeting in the Knesset, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, the Walla news site reported.

Trump’s proposal would require Hamas to release all 48 remaining hostages — the living and the dead — within 72 hours and Israel to begin a gradual withdrawal from the Strip, which will come under the governance of a transitional administration comprised of Palestinian technocrats.

The Strip would be demilitarized and Hamas required to disarm, with members guaranteed safe passage abroad if they wish to leave.

Contrary to the demands of Ben Gvir and Smotrich, the proposal would also “encourage people to stay” in Gaza, forbid Israel from annexing or occupying it, and tentatively put conditions in place “for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” upon the completion of long-demanded reforms to the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas has yet to respond to the deal, but has reportedly received it from mediators Egypt and Qatar and vowed to examine it “responsibly.”

President Isaac Herzog welcomed the deal in a post on X.

“Now the entire world must set a clear and immediate condition — that the terrorist organization Hamas agree to the plan set out by President Trump, and allow a future of hope for the peoples of the region,” he said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents most of the families of people abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza, responded to Trump’s proposal by publishing the “Shehechyanu” blessing.

“Shehecheyanu ve-kiy’manu ve-higi’anu la-z’man ha-zeh,” the forum wrote.

The Shehecheyanu prayer is a Jewish blessing that expresses appreciation for new and special experiences.

In a separate statement, the forum said families were “taking a breath of relief in light of the historic statements of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

“Today there was a significant breakthrough, but we must not rest on our laurels — the responsibility is on us, the people of Israel, to guarantee the fast and full implementation of the agreement,” said the Forum.

“When all parties accept Trump’s plan, the prime minister must immediately order the end of the military operation in Gaza City, which continues endangering the hostages, the troops and the implementation of the historic agreement,” the Forum said.

The more hawkish Tikva Forum also expressed approval of the plan announced by Trump and Netanyahu.

It has opposed previous partial and temporary ceasefire and hostage release deals, holding out hope for a permanent, comprehensive agreement and end to the war.

“The statements are consistent with our principles and commitment: the return of all the abductees in one stage, the living will return to their families, and the dead will be returned to be buried in Israel,” the Tikva Forum said in a statement.

“In the proposed deal, Hamas’s rule will be vanquished. We believe this is the only path to prevent future abductions and ensure the release of our loved ones,”the statement said. “If Hamas reneges on its commitments, we demand the US and the prime minister to stick to their promise tonight to continue the military operation until the deed is done and all of Hamas’s capabilities destroyed.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said on X that Trump’s plan “is the right basis for a hostage deal and end to the war,” but, contrary to past statements on hostage-ceasefire deals, stopped short of offering Netanyahu a political safety net.

“Tonight, all of our hearts are with the hostage families whose loved ones have been in the hell of Gaza for nearly two years,” wrote Lapid in a separate post. “We embrace you and are hopeful that your suffering will finally end.”

Gantz, who joined the government shortly after the October 7 onslaught and resigned in June 2024 amid disagreements with Netanyahu over the conduct of the war, noted on X the similarities between the unmet demands that led to his resignation and Trump’s vision.

“President Trump’s plan must be implemented, our hostages brought home, Israel’s operational freedom maintained, Hamas’ terror regime in Gaza replaced and moderate Arab States instated instead as I proposed a year and a half ago,” Gantz wrote.

“We must not miss out on the opportunity to bring back the hostages, safeguard our security and catalyze a ‘Strategic Flip’ expanding the circles of regional normalization,” read the English-language statement from the former IDF chief.

In Hebrew, he added: “We won’t let petty politics thwart the deal.”

The Democrats chair Golan, a harsh critic of Netanyahu, was still more explicit, writing on X that his party’s four lawmakers — all of them from the Labor faction of the Labor-Meretz union — would “provide a full safety net for the plan.”

“Ending the war, returning the hostages, disarming Hamas, dismantling Hamas’s rule — you’d have to be an absolute hater of Israel to refuse Trump’s plan,” he wrote. “But we’ll be happy and celebrate only when we see all the hostages back home.”

Gadi Eisenkot, who broke away from Gantz’s party and resigned from the Knesset earlier this year before launching his own party, reiterated that Netanyahu would have a majority in parliament for the deal.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, you must ignore the political threats of extremist ministers in your government who have thwarted the return of the hostages over the past two years,” wrote Eisenkot, also a former member of the premier’s war cabinet in the early months of the fighting.

Deri, the close Netanyahu confidant who leads the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party, responded to Trump’s proposal by thanking God “for the success of the summit at the White House.” He also praised Trump and Netanyahu’s “united stand for Israel’s security,” and expressed hope that the hostages would be returned by next week’s Sukkot holiday.

Shas and its fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism have long pledged to support any deal to bring back the hostages, given the importance placed on the issue by Jewish law, which requires doing as much as possible to free captives.

Senior figures in Netanyahu’s Likud party also applauded Trump’s proposal, although some backbenchers appeared more skeptical.

Posting a photo of Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference on social network X, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana wrote, “Indeed, a league above,” referring to a 2019 electoral slogan touting Netanyahu’s warm ties with foreign leaders such as Trump.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi touted the deal as an example of “peace through strength.”

“What’s the strategy?” he wrote on X. “Peace through strength, surrender or be destroyed! And of course, a Palestinian state will never be established in the land of our forefathers!”

Culture Minister Miki Zohar echoed the sentiment: “Israel makes peace through strength. Thank you President Trump, thank you PM Netanyahu,” he tweeted.

Economy Minister Nir Barkat hailed Netanyahu’s “political genius.”

“The political genius of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again proven itself — Netanyahu succeeded in convincing President Trump and the Arab states of the justice of Israel’s path,” he declared on X.

“I trust Prime Minister Netanyahu that a Palestinian state will never be established,” he said, thanking Trump as a “true friend.”

Likud MK Avichay Buaron said the plan was “what absolute victory looks like,” and that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority “will have no foothold in managing the Strip in any way.” In fact, the proposal would let PA take over the Strip once the transitional government there was satisfied that the unpopular, West Bank-based body had reformed itself.

Meanwhile, Likud MK Tally Gotliv expressed doubt that the deal was tenable.

“It is clear as day that the cruel and murderous Hamas will not agree to return all our hostages within 72 hours,” she said. “Only someone who does not understand the Hamas ethos would believe that Hamas will return all our hostages and agree to the outline.”

Likud MK Moshe Saada said on Army Radio that “if all the hostages return in a comprehensive deal and Hamas is disarmed, that’s a great deal, but let’s be clear-eyed — we’ve been in this situation several times and we know what we’re dealing with.”

Amit Halevi, another Likud lawmaker, asserted that there was “no possibility” that Hamas would disarm or that any “international committee” would protect Israelis. “That’s why I recommend not going overboard with dreamy descriptions of papers and agreements,” he said. “Nothing besides full Israeli control of the Gaza Strip is relevant. Sooner or later, that’s what has to happen.”

The war in Gaza, he said, was part of “this war against radical Islam, which no agreement has changed in the past and none can change now or in the future.”

Omer Dostri, Netanyahu’s former spokesman, slated the plan as an “absolute failure” and insisted that the premier “has no mandate to raise a white flag,” in his first public criticism since being fired in July ahead of Netanyahu’s last meeting with Trump.

The deal would mean Israel abandoning territory in Gaza, leaving Hamas undefeated, and preparing the way for “the return of the PA and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” as well as the cancellation of moves to facilitate voluntary migration by Palestinians, fumed Dostri on X.

Shortly before the White House press conference on Monday, leaders of both opposition and coalition parties criticized Netanyahu’s apology to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, which he delivered during a phone call in Trump’s presence.

The premier was apologizing for Israel’s strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari soldier, failed to kill any Hamas leaders and temporarily stymied ceasefire-hostage talks.

Lapid and Golan said Netanyahu should instead apologize to Israelis for his failures surrounding the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, with Golan noting that Qatar, with Netanyahu’s approval, had furnished Hamas with millions of dollars in cash on a monthly basis until the onslaught.

Golan slammed Netanyahu for “groveling” before the “enemy of Israel, hater of Jews,” Al-Thani, and called Netanyahu a “full-on collaborator of Hamas and Qatar” — a reference to the criminal investigation into Netanyahu’s top aides for alleged ties to the Gulf state.

Ben Gvir, meanwhile, called the attack on Qatar “important, just, and supremely moral.”

Taking to X to call Qatar “an enemy state,” the far-right minister said “whoever sends monsters to burn babies, rape women, and abduct elderly women must know that there is no place in the world where he is safe.”

“It is time to tell the world the truth: Qatar is a state that supports terrorism, funds terrorism, and incites terrorism,” he said. “No money will cleanse the terrorism from their hands.”

Smotrich compared the apology to the UK’s wartime prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany, which was signed 87 years ago Tuesday.

Smotrich cited a quotation attributed to Chamberlain’s successor, Winston Churchill, who said Chamberlain’s government “had to choose between war and shame. They chose shame. They will get war too.”

“Churchill’s statement echoes today, as well,” said Smotrich. “The groveling apology to a state that supports and funds terror is a disgrace.”