Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has warned that his extremist Jewish Power party would push to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's regime unless Hamas is ultimately dismantled.
"If the Hamas government is not dismantled, or if they only tell us that it is dismantled while in reality it continues to exist under a different guise - Jewish Power will dismantle the government," Ben-Gvir said in a statement on Thursday ahead of a Netanyahu cabinet meeting to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release plan.
Ben-Gvir also said that he would vote against a US-sponsored Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas as it proposes releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
"The heart of all of us fills with joy... at the fact that all the hostages are expected to return... However, alongside this joy, it is absolutely forbidden to ignore the question of the price: the release of thousands of terrorists, including 250 murderers who are expected to be freed from prisons. This is an unbearable heavy price," Ben Gvir wrote on X.
"I cannot vote in favour of a deal that releases those murderous terrorists, and we will oppose it in the government," he said in a statement posted while the Israeli cabinet was voting on the deal.
Security Cabinet meeting ends without vote
A meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet concluded on Thursday evening without a vote on a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
The Cabinet meeting was called to approve the Gaza ceasefire and captive-prisoner swap agreement, which was originally scheduled for 5 pm local time but was delayed by more than an hour, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
A subsequent government session to approve the agreement was postponed until 10 pm after a four-hour delay.
In the government meeting, Ben-Gvir is expected to vote against Trump's Gaza plan, along with another extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich.
