Benjamin Netanyahu is sharply at odds with his security chiefs over a potential agreement to halt the fighting in Gaza and ease soaring tensions across the Middle East, as Israeli defence officials push to take the deal.
The dispute at the top of the Israeli establishment comes as the Jewish state braces for retaliation by Iran and its proxy forces for twin assassinations last week that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and the military chief of Lebanon-based Hizbollah.
At the same time Netanyahu has in recent weeks hardened Israel’s position in ongoing talks with Hamas brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, putting at risk a possible deal that would include the release of Israeli hostages seized during the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack.
“There are differences of opinion” over the merits of a deal between Netanyahu and his top security chiefs, said one person familiar with Israeli deliberations.
“At the moment all the security officials think that there is no impediment [for Israel] to achieve a deal, but Netanyahu has to agree,” the person added.
International diplomats believe that a ceasefire in Gaza could also open the window for an agreement to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hizbollah, who have been exchanging daily cross-border fire since the Iran-backed movement began firing into Israel a day after the Hamas attack.
The security officials who support a deal include the head of the Israel Defense Forces, Herzi Halevi; spy agency Mossad chief David Barnea, Israel’s main negotiator at the talks; and Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, local media reported. A person familiar with the situation said all the defence figures present at a contentious meeting last week favoured reaching an agreement.
Defence minister Yoav Gallant is also seen as favouring a deal, saying on Wednesday in a call with his Italian counterpart that there was “immediate importance of achieving an agreement for the return of hostages”.
But the killing of Haniyeh, who had been Hamas’s main point of communication with mediators, was condemned by Qatar and Egypt, who said his assassination would set back the talks.
Following the twin assassinations, Israel took responsibility for the strike that killed Fuad Shukr in south Beirut last week, but has neither confirmed nor denied it killed Haniyeh hours later in the Iranian capital. The deaths followed a suspected Hizbollah rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The dispute between Netanyahu and his defence chiefs burst into public view at the weekend when Israeli media, led by Channel 12 News, reported a vocal late-night exchange between the prime minister and senior security figures last week.
“You’re weaklings,” Netanyahu was reported to have said on Wednesday. “You don’t know how to manage a negotiation . . . Instead of pressuring the prime minister, pressure [Yahya] Sinwar,” he added, referring to Hamas’s leader in Gaza, who Israel blames for masterminding the October 7 attack.
Israel’s security chiefs have countered that after 10 months of war, enough damage has been inflicted on Hamas to degrade the group’s military capabilities and the threat posed from the Gaza Strip, a crucial objective of the war.
At the same time, they believe a limited window of opportunity currently exists to release the remaining 115 hostages from captivity, at least a third of who are no longer alive. A series of hostages have died in captivity in recent months.
Talks over a ceasefire-for-hostage deal in Gaza have staggered along for months, as Hamas originally insisted any agreement must provide an upfront guarantee that the war would end permanently, something Netanyahu has refused to consider.
Hamas last month agreed to delay negotiations on how the war ends until the first phase of the three-stage agreement was complete — in what was considered a significant concession by the group.
But Netanyahu then introduced new conditions, said several people briefed on the talks.
Among the prime minister’s hardened terms were that Israel would not withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border region, known as the Philadelphi corridor, which Israeli troops seized in May.
He also demanded that a mechanism be found to stop Hamas gunmen from returning to north Gaza alongside hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, who would have to travel via a second corridor held by the Israeli military.
There are also differences over the number of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners set to be released as part of the deal.
“The mediators have been trying to convey that unless [Israel] softens its stance, there is a very real risk that negotiations would hit yet another stumbling block,” said one diplomat briefed on the talks.
Analysts believe domestic politics is influencing Netanyahu’s calculations, with far-right ministers threatening to topple his governing coalition if he accepts any halt to the fighting as part of a deal they have called a “surrender”.
Netanyahu has hit back at his critics, most recently at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, where he said he was “prepared to go very far to release all of our hostages, while maintaining the security of Israel”.
“Our commitment stands in complete contrast to the leaks and mendacious briefings on the issue of our hostages,” he added, saying that it was Hamas — not Israel — that had demanded “dozens of changes” to a draft proposal first made public by US President Joe Biden in late May.
US officials have stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza in order to lower tensions across the region. Biden last week said Netanyahu should seize the opportunity for a Gaza deal after a phone call with the Israeli leader.
“I had a very direct meeting with the prime minister. We have the basis for a ceasefire. They should move on it and move on it now,” Biden told reporters.
For his part, in recent weeks, Netanyahu has been pressing the US administration for a “letter of understanding” that would allow Israel to resume fighting in Gaza if the talks collapse at the end of the initial six-week phase of the deal, said the person familiar with Israeli deliberations.
Such a letter would make it harder to convince Hamas to sign up, while also giving Netanyahu a means to appease his far-right allies who oppose an end to the war.
“Netanyahu wants a way out of the deal and the freedom to keep going after Hamas,” the person added. “He doesn’t want the deal to be binding.”
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