2 Israeli ministers oppose Gaza ceasefire agreement

Jerusalem:

Two Israeli ministers on Sunday publicly opposed the Gaza ceasefire deal, saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has no right to exist if it fails to attack Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold in the Palestinian territory.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz called for the destruction of Hamas, as the government had planned when the war broke out following the Islamic movement’s attack on October 7.

Addressing the prime minister, Smotrich wrote on The government will have no right to exist.” ,

“The Egyptian agreement is a disgraceful capitulation… It sentences the hostages to death, and above all, poses an immediate existential threat to the State of Israel.”

Gantz, a former army chief and defense minister, also pressed for an attack on Rafah.

“The entry into Rafah is important in the long struggle against Hamas,” he said in a statement issued by his party.

“If a responsible framework for the return of the hostages, supported by the entire defense establishment, is achieved, which does not end the war, and the Minister who led the Government on 7 October prevents it – then the Government will no longer have the right to exist. Will stay.”

Diplomatic efforts have intensified to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza amid growing calls against the ground offensive on Rafah.

Netanyahu has vowed to send troops to Rafah, where more than 1.5 million civilians have taken refuge, but he is under intense international and domestic pressure to reach a deal to free the hostages.

A senior Hamas official told AFP that a Hamas delegation would arrive in Egypt on Monday to provide the group’s response to Israel’s new hostage-taking and ceasefire proposal, which reportedly has Egypt’s support.

Axios news website, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss “the restoration of lasting peace” in Gaza after the release of the hostages.

It is the first time in the nearly seven-month war that Israeli leaders have suggested they are ready to discuss an end to the war, Axios said.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to broker a new ceasefire since fighting stopped for a week in November, in exchange for 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Went.

Israel estimates that 129 hostages captured on 7 October are still being held in Gaza, of whom 34 have been killed according to the military.

Hamas’ unprecedented attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israeli retaliatory strikes against Hamas have killed at least 34,454 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

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