Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu wrapped up a two-hour meeting with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tonight. Ben Gvir, the leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, had warned earlier in the evening that his faction would quit the coalition if Hamas “continues to exist” following the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also joined part of the meeting, Walla reported.
Smotrich, who—like Ben Gvir—had opposed previous agreements linking hostage releases to ceasefires, stated earlier that Netanyahu had made a “serious mistake” by agreeing to pause Israel’s offensive in Gaza at the request of President Donald Trump.
Despite their threats, neither minister had withdrawn from the government as of Saturday night.
The two nationalist ministers had consistently opposed ending the war in exchange for hostages, pressing instead for Israel to annex Gaza and establish Jewish communities there — an approach explicitly rejected under Trump’s peace framework.
Opposition leaders, meanwhile, said they were determined to ensure a parliamentary majority for the Trump-brokered deal, even if Ben Gvir and Smotrich followed through on their threats to abandon the coalition.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, Netanyahu had been in closer and more frequent contact with the two ministers in recent days than had been publicly known. The report said he had kept them updated and spoken to both throughout Shabbat.
Sources close to Netanyahu told Haaretz that the prime minister preferred to see the hostages freed even if it meant the collapse of his government, rather than maintaining political stability at the expense of their release — though some political observers expressed doubt about whether this reflected his true intentions.
{Matzav.com Israel}
