Israeli cabinet meeting on ceasefire deal delayed until tomorrow amid government infighting

LAST UPDATE | 21 hrs ago

THE ISRAELI SECURITY Cabinet will meet tomorrow to discuss a ceasefire agreement reached with Hamas between negotiators in Qatar yesterday, according to Israeli media reports. 

The meeting was supposed to take place this morning but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stalled the process and accused Hamas of seeking to “extort last-minute concessions” from Israel. 

The statement from the prime minister’s office did not specify which parts of the deal were at issue. The statement added that the cabinet “will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”

The ceasefire and captive exchange deal was announced by the prime minister of Qatar yesterday. It was expected to take effect on Sunday. The first phase of the agreement would see 33 hostages returned to Israel from Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of the Palestinian enclave. 

Hamas has rejected Netanyahu’s claim and said it is committed to the agreement announced in Doha. 

“There is no basis to Netanyahu’s claims about the movement backtracking from terms in the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told the AFP news agency.

Another political bureau member, Izzat al-Rishq, said separately in a statement: “Hamas is committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.”

According to Israeli public radio, the delay is due to a crisis within the government coalition involving far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has vocally opposed any agreement to end the war.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that the meeting of the Security Cabinet will now take place tomorrow morning, after which government ministers will vote on its adoption. The newspaper reported that Israeli ministers are yet to be summoned to discuss the deal. 

Later, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that he and his party colleagues would quit the cabinet if it approved the deal, though they would not leave the country’s ruling coalition.

“If this irresponsible agreement is approved and implemented, the Jewish Power party will not be part of the government and will leave it,” he said at a press conference late this evening, while keeping open the possibility of reversing course if the ceasefire collapsed.

“If the war against Hamas resumes, with intensity, in order to achieve the objectives of the war that have not been achieved, we will return to the government.”

Ben Gvir sits on the Israeli cabinet alongside two fellow Jewish Power MPs, and contributes six members, including himself, to Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of 68 members of the Knesset.

But even as he threatened to quit the cabinet, he said his party “will not overthrow Netanyahu”.

Ben Gvir also called on far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionism party, to quit.

Today, the Israeli military said it had launched attacks against 50 targets in the Gaza Strip.

Advertisement

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israel has pounded several areas of the Palestinian territory since the announcement of the ceasefire deal yesterday, killing at least 73 people and wounding hundreds.

“Since the ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli occupation forces have killed 73 people, including 20 children and 25 women,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, adding that another 230 people were wounded in the “bombardments that are continuing”.

‘Disastrous deal’

Speaking yesterday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages seized during the 7 October, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

That attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians.

Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

However, two of Netanyahu’s ministers have publicly opposed the ceasefire deal.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and leader of the Religious Zionism party said the agreement was a “bad and dangerous deal for the security of the State of Israel”.

It’s understood that Smotrich met with the Israeli government earlier this morning to decide whether to remain in the government or not.

According to the Israeli media reports, Smotrich did not receive the assurances he requested and has not committed to remaining in government.

His party colleague, Zvi Sukkot, has also told Israeli radio station Kan that his party would likely “resign from the government” should the deal be approved.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has also said he opposed the “disastrous deal”.

Hamas meanwhile said the ceasefire was the “result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip”.

And Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif greeted the announcement of the ceasefire deal by taking off his press protective gear, cheered on by people around him.

“Now I can finally take off this helmet that has exhausted me through this period.”

‘Last page of the war’

Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.

“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani .

Related Reads

Explainer: When will the Gaza ceasefire take effect - and will it last?

He added that the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.

During the initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, he said, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas to allow for the exchanges, as well as “the return of the displaced people to their residences”, he said.

The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalised” during the initial 42 days, he said.

Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during the 7 October attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Unlikely pairing

Announcing the deal from the White House, Biden said he was “deeply satisfied this day has come”, calling the negotiations some of the “toughest” of his career.

He added that an as-yet unfinalised second phase of the agreement would bring a “permanent end to the war”, saying he was “confident” the deal would hold.

Envoys from both Trump’s incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.

“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November” in the US election, Trump said on social media.

The president-elect added that his White House would “continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.

Aid needed

Biden said the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians and reunite the hostages with their families”.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also underscored the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza as he welcomed news of the deal.

Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera news outlet cited a security source as saying coordination was “underway” to reopen the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow the entry of aid.

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, has said it will continue providing much-needed aid.

- © AFP 2025 and with additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper and David Mac Redmond