Yedioth Ahronoth: Ben Gvir and Smotrich pushes Netanyahu to nullify the exchange deal

An Israeli government official said on Saturday that the opposition of Ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich is prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to nullify the possibility of reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with the Palestinian factions in Gaza.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted on its website an official it described as senior in the Israeli government as saying that the opposition of Ben Gvir and Smotrich is pushing Netanyahu to nullify the possibility of reaching a deal.

The official familiar with the details of the exchange deal negotiations added, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu represents the minority against government officials and the heads of the security services, most of whom support concluding the deal.

Earlier on Saturday, the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the Israeli Ministers of National Security and Finance threatened to withdraw from the government if the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip wasn’t invaded.

In recent months, Israeli media reported that Ben Gvir and Smotrich prevented Netanyahu from reaching an agreement with Hamas, under the threat of withdrawal from the government.

If the two parties, the Jewish Power party and the Religious Zionism party, led by Ben Gvir and Smotrich, withdraw, the current coalition government in place since December 2022 will fall.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said that Tel Aviv would suspend the Rafah operation if a prisoner exchange agreement was reached with Hamas, while Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called for the deal to be concluded, according to the private Israeli Channel 12.

This came after the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, broadcast a video showing two Israeli prisoners demanding the Netanyahu government to release them, saying that they are living in difficult conditions under Israeli bombing.

During the video, the Qassam Brigades said in written sentences, “The military pressure exerted by Israel caused the death of dozens of prisoners in Gaza, and deprived the rest of them from celebrating Passover (the Jewish holiday that began on Tuesday and lasts a week) with their families (without clarifying their number)”.

Commenting on the video, the families of Israeli prisoners said in a statement, “Israel must choose, invading Rafah or a deal with Hamas,” according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas movement announced that it had received Israel’s official response to the movement’s position on the prisoner exchange deal and the ceasefire, which it delivered to the mediators Egypt and Qatar on April 13, indicating that once its study was completed, it would deliver its response to the mediators.

Hamas’ receipt of the Israeli response coincided with a visit by an Egyptian security delegation to Tel Aviv on Friday, carrying “a proposal for its country dealing with the release of all Israeli prisoners in Gaza, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and a one-year ceasefire,” according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

For months, Egypt, Qatar, and the United States have been leading indirect negotiations between Israel and the Hamas movement, but they didn’t result in a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip or an exchange of prisoners and detainees between the two parties.

Israel estimates that there are about 134 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, while Hamas announced that 70 of them were killed in random raids carried out by Israel, which holds at least 9,100 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons.