Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir commented on the emerging agreement to free all the hostages, saying that alongside the great joy over their expected return, attention must be paid to the heavy price involved in the deal.
“Our hearts are filled with joy, happiness and excitement that all the hostages are expected to return home — the living to their families and to rehabilitation, and the dead for burial,” he said after the Cabinet meeting this evening.
However, he added, “Alongside this joy it is absolutely forbidden to ignore the question of price: the release of thousands of terrorists, including 250 murderers who are expected to be freed from our prisons. This is an unbearable price. These are terrorists whom past experience shows will return to terrorism and to their craft of murdering Jews.”
He stressed that “the ministers from Otzma Yehudit will not be able to raise our hands in favor of a deal that releases those murderous terrorists, and we will oppose it in the government.”
According to Ben Gvir, alongside the good news about the hostages’ release, the goal of the war remains as defined at its outset: “to ensure that this disaster cannot recur — by dismantling Hamas’ rule.”
The minister added that in his recent conversations with the prime minister he made clear that he will not be part of a government that allows Hamas’ rule in Gaza to continue, calling it “a bright red line.” He said, “The prime minister committed to me that this will be the case.”
Ben Gvir concluded: “I told the prime minister, and I tell you, citizens of Israel: I will not enable any fraud. If Hamas’ rule is not dismantled, or if we are told it has been dismantled while in practice it continues to exist under another guise — Otzma Yehudit will bring down the government.”