Netanyahu needs the support of both parties to keep his coalition from collapsing and costing him his position as prime minister.
Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir said Friday that his party would resign and collapse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hold on power if the current cease-fire and hostage deal goes through.
Gvir, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party slammed the peace deal as unacceptable as he called on other members of Israel’s government to join his protest.
“This deal teaches them (Hamas) that they can take hostages and attack, and at the end of the day, they can get what they want,” Gvir said at a news conference, according to a CNN translation.
Gvir has previously boasted about derailing previous cease-fire deals, demanding the Jewish state stick to negotiating the release of every hostage at once and continuing the war effort afterwards.
Gvir, who has also called for Israel to annex sections of the Gaza Strip, called on fellow right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the Religious Zionism Party who has expressed his own disdain in the deal, to join him in threatening his resignation.
Smotrich posted on X late Wednesday that he was demanding “absolute certainty” that Israel can resume the war later, calling the current deal “bad and dangerous” for Israel.
Netanyahu needs the support of both parties to keep his coalition from collapsing and costing him his position as prime minister.
While Smortrich has yet to signal that he would join the protest, one of Netanyahu’s own ministers in the Likud Party, Amichai Chikli, also threatened his resignation on Thursday over the deal.
Chikli, who oversees the Ministry of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism, said he could not support a deal that would include Israel’s withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor, along the Egypt-Gaza border.
“I hereby undertake that if, God forbid, there is a withdrawal from the Philadelphia Axis (before the war goals are achieved), or if we do not return to fighting in order to complete the war goals – I will resign from my position as a government minister,” Chikli wrote on X.
Following the ministers’ threats, the ruling Likud party warned that those who try to derail the cease-fire deal would live on in infamy.
“Anyone who dissolves the right-wing government will be remembered as a world scoundrel,” the party said in a joint statement.
Despite the blow from his allies, Netanyahu will still have the votes he needs to keep the government going after Opposition Leader, Yair Lapid announced he would support the embattled prime minister through the negotiations.
“I say to Benjamin Netanyahu, don’t be afraid or intimidated, you will get every safety net you need to make the hostage deal,” Lapid said in a statement. “This is more important than any disagreement we’ve ever had.”
While the deal would still remain intact to begin on Sunday to begin the truce and release of 33 hostages, it would effectively mark the end of Netanyahu’s majority in government and allow Lapid to issue new elections whenever he chooses.
