Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is “very upset” about a brewing deal to secure the release of scores of hostages seized by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
“I am very upset because they’re now talking about some kind of deal,” Ben-Gvir told local press. “I am disturbed because we are once again being divided, and once again, we are not being told the truth.”
TALKING TURKEY: WHY THE COST OF THE HOLIDAY DINNER HAS RISEN SO MUCH IN RECENT YEARS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a meeting of the war cabinet “in light of developments on the issue of the release of our hostages.” Yet the arrangement already has begun to exacerbate a rift between the hard-right wing of the coalition that returned Netanyahu to power and the unity government that the prime minister has led for most of the war.
“The return of the hostages is a moral order and also an integral part of the resilience that allows us to win the war,” said Benny Gantz, an Israeli war cabinet minister, opposition leader, and retired army chief who formed a unity government with Netanyahu after the Oct. 7 attack. “It is important to say that, especially these days, Israeli society as a whole, … Right and Left, is praying and wishing for the safe return of the [hostages].”
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad seized about 240 hostages during their rampage across southern Israel. Their plight has haunted most Israeli military strategists and civil society, but Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist politician who has been excluded from the management of the war by the unity government, clashed with fellow ministers and the families of the hostages. He also has urged a more aggressive and punitive course of action with respect to the war in Gaza and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
“I’m asking how we can allow this," Ben-Gvir said, rebuking Gantz and his ally in the war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot. "How can you send a drop of fuel into there when you know there is no Red Cross examining the babies, the children, the women? This is idiocy. It’s delusional. Sadly, Gantz and Eisenkot are leading the cabinet down bad paths.”
The Israeli government is expected to agree to a ceasefire, during which time the belligerents will exchange about 100 hostages in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners and an influx of humanitarian aid. The families of the hostages have faulted Netanyahu, as opposed to Gantz and Eisenkot, for not elevating the rescue of the hostages above the war aim.
“What we’ve heard is that taking down Hamas and bringing the hostages [home] are … equally important,” Udi Goren, the cousin of a hostage, told Israeli journalists on Monday. “This is incredibly disappointing because … we know that taking down Hamas — we keep hearing from them [it] is going to take months or years, and it’s going to take a long time.”
Ben-Gvir and his parliamentary allies engaged in a heated argument with the families of hostages on Monday. The ultranationalist lawmakers want to adopt a new bill to impose the death penalty on Hamas terrorists, but other Israeli leaders say the legislation is redundant, and the families of the hostages fear that it could provoke Hamas to retaliate against their loved ones.
“I asked you already last week, and I begged you to stop,” said Gil Dickmann, a relative of one of the hostages. “I begged you not to make any kind of hay out of us or our suffering. Please do not have a hearing now on the gallows. Please do not have a hearing now on the death penalty. Not when the lives of our loved ones are in the balance. Not when the sword is on their necks.”
Ben-Gvir tweeted a photo of himself hugging Dickmann after the hearing, only to draw a rebuke from the man, who said he had told Ben-Gvir not to hug him.
“I told you: Don’t put our loved ones at risk,” Dickmann wrote on social media. “Still, you took a risk. All for the picture. Itamar Ben Gvir — You have no limits. Everyone sees that you are making a circus on the blood of our families.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Hamas maintained, at the outset of the conflict, that it would not release the hostages unless Israel ended the military campaign and released the several thousand Palestinian prisoners in its custody. That demand expanded on the precedent set in 2011, when Israel released about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a kidnapped Israeli soldier. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel deems the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack, was released as part of that deal.
Netanyahu, for his part, insisted that any reprieve from Israeli bombardments in Gaza would be contingent on Hamas releasing hostages — a posture that U.S. officials endorsed in recent days.