Smotrich says he will oppose hostage deal, as his party weighs quitting the government

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Thursday morning that his far-right Religious Zionism party will not vote in support of a Gaza ceasefire deal that will see hostages freed in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners and a halt to fighting in Gaza, as other hawkish politicians expressed misgivings about the emerging pact.

In a statement, Smotrich expressed “mixed emotions,” saying that while he felt “immense joy” at the pending return of the hostages, he is also experiencing “tremendous fear of the consequences of emptying the prisons and releasing the next generation of terrorist leaders, who will do everything to continue spilling rivers of Jewish blood, God forbid.”

As such, he declared, “We cannot join in the short-sighted celebrations or vote in favor of the deal.”

The security cabinet was set to meet Thursday to be briefed on the Gaza ceasefire deal, with the full government meeting afterward to vote on the agreement. A substantial majority in favor of the deal was expected.

A top official within Hamas told AFP that Israel would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for around 20 living hostages as part of the deal. The figure includes 250 terror convicts serving life sentences and 1,700 others detained since the start of the war.

The exchange should take place within 72 hours of the implementation of the deal, which was also “agreed with Palestinian factions,” another source within Hamas said.

People celebrate following the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan to pause the fighting, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP/Emilio Morenatti)

Media reports said Israel will remain in control of 53 percent of the Gaza Strip until all the hostages are released but that the deal contains “scheduled withdrawals” of IDF troops, including from the Rafah crossing and its vicinity.

In his statement, Smotrich argued that Israel should continue fighting in Gaza.

“It is a huge responsibility to ensure that this is not, God forbid, a deal of ‘hostages in exchange for stopping the war,’ as Hamas thinks and brags about,” Smotrich declared, arguing that immediately after the return of the hostages, Israel should “continue to strive with all its might for the real eradication of Hamas and the real demilitarization of Gaza so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel.”

He also spoke out against a political process aiming at Palestinian statehood or the use of an international force to secure Gaza, both key tenets of the 20-point US plan for Gaza.

“It is a huge obligation to ensure that we do not return to the Oslo path, God forbid, and that we do not abandon our security to the hands of foreigners,” he insisted, boasting that his opposition to previous deals “led to progress in the occupation of Gaza and the application of military pressure that brought Hamas to its knees.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (center) is seen in Gaza City on September 30, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Smotrich last week slammed the Trump plan as a “resounding diplomatic failure” and has set out his party’s “red lines” on the deal — although he had previously stopped short of saying outright that he would try to torpedo it.

Among Smotrich’s conditions for supporting the agreement were keeping Israeli forces on the perimeter of the Strip, including on the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egyptian border.

In addition, he demanded that there be no role at all for the Palestinian Authority in ruling the Strip, not even obliquely, saying that such a role would be tantamount to acknowledging a Palestinian state.

Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal thanked God and the troops for the release of the hostages, but insisted that “we must not turn a blind eye to the serious problems in the agreement.”

“It is our duty to ensure that Hamas is indeed dismantled, that Gaza no longer poses a threat to the State of Israel, and so we shall do,” he tweeted.

“The certainty that we will pay in blood for a deal in which terrorists are released and Hamas survives is clear,” he said in a second post, predicting that “we will face another war in the future.”

Religious Zionism MKs Simcha Rothman and Orit Strock in the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 9, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

MK Simcha Rothman expressed what appeared to be cautious support, stating that while “now is the time to laugh and to dance with the hope for the swift release of all the hostages,” there is also “much to weep over.”

Speaking with the Ynet news site, Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock, another member of Smotrich’s party, praised some of the deal’s achievements but added that the party could bolt the government over the issue.

“[I don’t] know how it’s morally possible to remain in a government that does Oslo III, sends soldiers to fight and says — we gave up on these goals,” she said, alluding to the pair of Oslo Accords from the 1990s that established the Palestinian Authority and were meant to lead to peace.

Asked if Religious Zionism plans on bolting the government or coalition, a source within the party replied that “we don’t know yet.”

A political ‘safety net’

Both Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who chairs the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, have spoken out against the deal in recent days, prompting the leaders of the so-called anti-Netanyahu “change bloc” to rally behind Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s offer of a political “safety net” to ensure Israeli backing of the deal on Wednesday.

Lapid earlier this week reiterated a longstanding offer to give the premier political backing for a deal, stating that he was willing to agree on a date for the next elections and to provide the premier with “insurance against his extremist and irresponsible partners.”

While Ben Gvir did not immediately weigh in on the deal on Thursday, he recently threatened to bolt the government if Hamas “continues to exist” after the hostages are freed. Earlier this year, Ben Gvir’s party quit the coalition for several months to protest the acceptance of a previous, partial deal.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and MK Limor Son Har-Melech arrive for a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, on the petition of Adalah Human rights organization and MK Ahmad Tibi asking to allow visits to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, on September 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“In light of recent developments, myself and the Otzma Yehudit faction informed the prime minister in a clear manner: if after the release of the hostages the Hamas terror organization remains in existence, Otzma Yehudit will not be part of the government,” Ben Gvir said in a statement to the press on Saturday night.

“We will not be part of a national defeat which will be an eternal disgrace, and which will turn into a ticking time bomb of the next massacre,” he added.

Meanwhile, Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, a member of Ben Gvir’s party, cheered the agreement on Thursday, saying “everyone will return home… without anyone remaining behind.”

But party MK Limor Son Har-Melech warned on the right-wing Israel National News news site that the release of terrorists from Israeli prisons would only lead to more violence in the future.

While the hostage deal was widely celebrated by members of the coalition outside of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, not everybody within Netanyahu’s Likud was happy with the pending ceasefire.

In a statement, MK Amit Halevi said that “great excitement that comes with every hostage who returns to his family does not blind us to seeing the celebrations of Hamas’s victory.”

Arguing that Hamas would remain a power in Gaza, where it will remain “committed to the destruction of Israel,” Halevi argued that the ending of the campaign in Gaza “will undoubtedly cost us a terrible price in blood.”

“We could have won. We chose not to do so. Hamas could have been defeated in a matter of weeks,” he said.

Jeremy Sharon, Nurit Yohanan and AFP contributed to this report.