By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with his National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday to discuss a hostage swap deal and a cease-fire in Gaza with Hamas, two days after he and the finance minister threatened to leave the ruling coalition government in Tel Aviv if US President Joe Biden's three-phase plan to end the Gaza crisis is accepted.
On Saturday evening, Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right ultranationalist Jewish Power party, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to dissolve the government if Netanyahu agreed to the deal proposed on Friday by Biden, which he described as an "Israeli proposal."
Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir will meet on Monday to discuss the emerging details of the proposed deal, following threats to dissolve the government, Israeli Army Radio reported.
The Jewish Power will later hold a party meeting to discuss the proposed deal, according to the nationwide radio station run by the Israeli Defense Ministry, without providing any additional information.
The Israeli government has not officially approved the deal announced by Biden.
“The deal, as its details were published (by Biden) today, means the end of the war and the surrender to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X on Saturday.
"If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to lead this deal, we will dissolve the government,” he threatened.
Following Ben-Giver stance, Smotrich later stated on X, “I have now spoken with the prime minister and made it clear to him that I will not be part of a government that will agree to the proposed outline and end the war without destroying Hamas and returning all the abductees.”
“We will not agree to the end of the war before the destruction of Hamas, nor to serious damage to the achievements of the war so far through the withdrawal of the IDF (army) and the return of Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip, nor to the wholesale release of terrorists who will return, God forbid, to murder Jews,” he added.
- 3-phase Gaza plan
On Friday, Biden said Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave.
Biden called on the Palestinian resistance group Hamas to accept the proposal and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resist pressure from members of his governing coalition to reject the plan.
However, Netanyahu's office reiterated on Friday that the government intends to continue its deadly offensive on Gaza until all of Tel Aviv's war "goals" are met.
Hamas, for its part, said it will "respond positively to any proposal that includes a permanent cease-fire, a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction efforts, the return of the displaced, and the completion of a comprehensive hostage exchange deal."
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 36,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio