Itamar Ben-Gvir sparks uproar after saying he foiled hostage deals
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked an uproar in Israel after tweeting on Tuesday that he foiled several hostage-ceasefire deals during the past year.
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir at a Knesset committee meeting on Nov. 20, 2023. Photo by Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS
Commenting on an emerging deal, Ben-Gvir tweeted, “Over the past year, through our political power, we have managed to prevent this deal from coming to fruition, time after time.”
In a video tweeted with the post, Ben-Gvir, leader of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, called on Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich to join him in blocking an agreement by threatening to quit the coalition.
Ben-Gvir added that he is no longer able to unilaterally collapse the government with the addition of Gideon Sa’ar and his New Hope party to the coalition. Sa’ar now serves as Foreign Minister.
“Recently other actors who support the deal have joined the government and we no longer hold the balance of power,” Ben-Gvir said.
Ben-Gvir’s remarks were condemned by the families of hostages and opposition MKs.
“He is openly admitting that he stopped a deal with his own hands for political gain,” said Gil Dickmann, a relative of Carmel Gat. The body of 39-year-old Gat was one of six recovered from a tunnel in Rafah in September. “If it were not for him, Carmel would be alive today.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid tweeted, “For more than a year I have been saying that ‘they are not reaching a hostage deal for political reasons’ and everyone tells me that this cannot be, that it’s shocking, and how could I say such a thing. And today Ben Gvir puts out a video and says to the camera, without blinking, that is the terrible truth.”
Under the terms of the emerging ceasefire, it is expected that the first 33 hostages to be released will be humanitarian cases — women, children, elderly and sick. Palestinians from northern Gaza who fled to southern areas of the Strip will be allowed to return to their homes. Israeli forces will not withdraw until all the hostages are freed.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 95 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
