Far right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition denounced a proposed cease-fire deal with Hamas that would see the release of some of the remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas said on Monday it had agreed to the terms of a deal presented by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. But the flurry of statements from hard-liners in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition illustrated the pressure he was under over the latest proposal, which would force him to forgo his stated plan to send the Israeli military into Gaza City, at least in the near term.
“Going for a partial deal is a moral folly and a difficult strategic error,” Moshe Saadeh, a lawmaker in Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party, told Israel’s Channel 14 on Tuesday. “In the end, it will strengthen Hamas,” he added.
A “partial deal” broadly refers to an arrangement that would allow for the exchange of some hostages and Palestinian prisoners and a temporary cease-fire, without resolving the dispute between Israel and Hamas over the end of the war.
The terms accepted by Hamas include both a temporary cease-fire and a path to an agreement to end the war, according to officials briefed on its contents, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Mr. Netanyahu has not publicly shared his position on the new cease-fire proposal.
In July, President Trump said Israel had agreed to “the necessary conditions” to finalize” a 60-day cease-fire, during which the United States would work with “work with all parties to end the war.” . Talks to reach that deal ultimately collapsed.
Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, said on Monday that Mr. Netanyahu does not have a “mandate to go to a partial deal.”
Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, rejected “stopping in the middle with a partial deal that abandons half of the hostages and that could lead to the suspension of the war in defeat.”
“It is forbidden to surrender and give a lifeline to the enemy,” he said.
Mr. Netanyahu relies on the support of Mr. Ben Gvir’s and Mr. Smotrich’s parties to maintain the stability of his government.
Hamas has said it is willing to release all the hostages on the condition that Israel ends the war. But Hamas has not publicly accepted Mr. Netanyahu’s conditions for ending the war, which include the group’s disarmament.
The gulf between Hamas and Israel’s position on ending the war, analysts say, shows that a partial deal is more realistic than a comprehensive agreement.
Last week, Mr. Netanyahu suggested Israel was no longer interested in a deal that would involve the release of only some hostages.
“I think that is behind us,” he told the Hebrew-language channel of i24 News.
But Gila Gamliel, a minister in Israel’s security cabinet and an ally of Mr. Netanyahu, did not rule out the latest offer.
“There’s a proposal. We know what it says,” she told Channel 14. “We will examine what we will say about that.”
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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