PM Netanyahu says cabinet won’t meet to approve Gaza truce
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his cabinet will not meet as scheduled to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, blaming Hamas for causing a “last-minute crisis”.
The Israeli cabinet was set to meet on Thursday morning to ratify the deal, with the ceasefire scheduled to take effect from Sunday.
“Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last minute concessions,” a statement from Netanyahu said. “The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”
Key party in Netanyahu government threatens to quit if Israel doesn’t return to war after ceasefire
A key party in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition is threatening to quit if the prime minister doesn’t return to war in Gaza after the first phase of a ceasefire-hostage agreement that was reached with Hamas on Wednesday. The move could lead to the collapse of the Israeli government.
The agreement announced by mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt stipulates that Hamas and Israel start negotiating a permanent ceasefire during the 42-day first phase of a truce.
The Israeli cabinet delayed a Thursday vote to ratify the deal, citing last-minute changes by Hamas – which the militant group denied.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionist Party on Thursday conditioned that Israel must “return to the war in order to destroy Hamas and the return of all the hostages… immediately after the conclusion of the first phase of the deal” to remain in government, it said in a statement.
The party did not say if it sought a written guarantee from Netanyahu to return to war.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a fellow far-right member of the government, has also threatened to resign and has called on Smotrich to join him. Neither party has enough lawmakers in parliament to collapse the government alone.
Together, both ministers control 14 seats in the legislature, enough to topple the government.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid has offered Netanyahu a “safety net” to protect his government from collapse. That support, however, would almost certainly be tied to the ceasefire deal, and could be withdrawn after all hostages are released, collapsing the government.
Biden administration "fully" expects hostage deal to be implemented Sunday despite delay
The Biden administration “fully” expects the ceasefire-hostage deal in the Middle East to be implemented Sunday – despite a delay in approval of the agreement by Israel’s cabinet.
Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told CNN Thursday that complications were expected “in deals that are complicated… and when there is literally zero trust between the two parties to the agreement.”
“We fully expect the deal to be implemented as described by the president and by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar yesterday, and on the timeline that was described” Finer told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. “What we’re doing now is working through details of implementation.”
Finer said the United States was in “very close touch with the mediators” and with the Israeli government.
President-elect Donald Trump took full credit for the deal Wednesday, and when asked about it, Finer said he was “certainly not going to respond directly to the president-elect.”
“What I would say is the contours of this deal, the details of this deal, all of the elements, were laid out by President Biden back in May,” he said. “The reality is, to be honest, we’ve not been focused on the political outcomes here and on who gets the credit. What we’ve been focused on is the outcome in the region trying to get this deal done and achieved.”
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