Far-right ministers in Israel piled pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to spurn a broader hostage-for-prisoner release deal with Hamas, even as talks continue in Qatar over extending the temporary truce in Gaza.
Two of the Israeli prime minister’s cabinet ramped up attacks on the ceasefire, warning that his coalition government was under threat if he pursued a more ambitious swap with the Palestinian militant group.
Qatar was on Wednesday hosting talks about maintaining the existing truce for longer, but claims from Hamas that the youngest hostage, a 10-month-old baby, and two other members of his family had been killed in captivity cast a shadow over the discussions.
The current truce agreement, which took effect last Friday, has the potential to be extended to 10 days, but there have also been discussions about a broader deal that would probably require Israel to commit to a more lasting halt to hostilities against Hamas and release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of murder.
In return, Hamas and other militant groups would release more hostages from Gaza, potentially including Israeli soldiers.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, warned that broadening the current agreement was “not on the agenda, not even as a suggestion”. “This is a plan to eliminate the State of Israel. We continue until absolute victory, God willing, and the destruction of the Nazis of Hamas,” he added on social media platform X.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, wrote: “Stopping the war = dissolution of the government.”
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have been particularly opposed to the release of any Palestinian prisoners beyond women and children.
The far-right figures were part of the government before the outbreak of war, but their leverage was diluted with the formation of an “emergency unity” government after Hamas’s October 7 attack. The emergency government brought in the centrist National Unity party, headed by former defence minister Benny Gantz, meaning that even if the far-right groups resigned in protest, the government could still survive.
Yet analysts say that Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving premier, will be reluctant to break with his traditional political allies as he aims to retain power in future.
A senior Israeli official said the Netanyahu government was focused on freeing the remaining civilian women and children held in Gaza, an aim that would require an extension of the current hostage-for-prisoner deal.
“The original agreement was about women and children. We need 27 more . . . we’re not discussing anything else,” the person said. “We’re not going to abandon 27 people to discuss a new agreement.”
Hamas’s military wing on Wednesday said in a statement that three Israeli hostages from the Bibas family — including 10-month-old Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel, and their mother Shir — had been killed in prior Israeli air strikes. No evidence was provided, and recent reports had indicated the family was in the hands of a smaller militant faction in Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was “assessing the accuracy of the information” and that its representatives were in contact with the family. The Bibas children had become symbols of the movement to secure the release of all the hostages, with Kfir the youngest of all those seized.
The initial deal called for a four-day pause in the fighting and the release of 50 Israeli women and children seized by the militant group during its devastating cross-border assault in which Israeli authorities say at least 1,200 people were killed.
In return, Israel committed to free 150 Palestinian women and children jailed on various security offences from its prisons, and to allow entry of increased amounts of aid into besieged Gaza.
The agreement was subsequently extended for two days, with an additional 10 Israeli hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners released late on Tuesday.
Mediators were continuing talks on Wednesday in the hope of extending the truce by another 48 hours to facilitate the release of more women and children.
More than 150 Israelis and foreign nationals are believed to still be held in Gaza by Hamas and other smaller militant groups.
Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, last month said the group was “ready to conduct an immediate prisoner exchange deal” with Israel, under which all the hostages would be released in exchange for all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. According to the Israel Prison Service, this number stands at more than 6,000 people.
Despite widespread support in Israel for the safe return of all the hostages from Gaza, such an “all for all” agreement would prove highly controversial, and not only on the ultranationalist right.
Israeli officials have made clear that any deal with Hamas was only a “pause” and that its offensive in Gaza would resume immediately after its completion.
The war, now in its eighth week, has reduced swaths of the densely populated territory to rubble and claimed the lives of 14,800 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
Relatives of Israelis held hostage have been campaigning publicly, through mass rallies and in the media, for the government to “pay any price” to return their loved ones home.
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