Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the head of the Religious Zionism Party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich yesterday to discuss a potential prisoner swap deal with Hamas amid growing fears of government collapse if Smotrich resigned in protest of the deal.
Smotrich’s party opposes concluding such a deal, but the party’s ministers and lawmakers have not openly said they would withdraw from the government if such a deal is concluded.
Far-right settlement Minister Orit Struck of Smotrich’s party described the deal as a “prize for terrorism” and said during a radio interview that “Netanyahu knows our red lines, and I hope he will not challenge them.”
On Sunday, Israel’s Walla news site quoted a political source as saying that Netanyahu believes far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will resign from the government if there is a deal, so he is hoping to convince Smotrich to, at most, vote against an agreement without quitting the coalition.
Earlier on Saturday, Netanyahu’s office announced that he had decided to send a high-level delegation, including heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet, to Qatar to join efforts to conclude a deal with Hamas.
Israeli journalist and intelligence analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth, Ronen Bergman, said despite reports of achieving progress in the negotiations, “none of the central issues have been resolved.
“The central issues will not be circumvented unless one of two things happens. Either Hamas gives in or Israel decides to end the war,” he said.
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