Ben-Gvir will withdraw from the Israeli alliance after it promotes a ceasefire agreement in Gaza

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Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Saturday that he will leave Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government to protest against the ceasefire and hostage release agreement he made with Hamas.

The Israeli government approved a multi-phase agreement – which will end the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and pave the way for the release of 98 hostages being held there – early Saturday.

But some right-wing cabinet members voted against the deal, and Ben-Gvir later said he would follow through on his first threat to leave the government on Sunday, when the first part of the weeks The sixth of the agreement – which he called “terrible” — is ready to start.

Despite the departure of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party, Netanyahu’s coalition will retain a narrow majority of two seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament because his ultranationalist partner Bezalel Smotrich – Israel’s finance minister – looks like he will stay in government.

Earlier this week Smotrich threatened to leave the government if Israel did not start a war when the first phase of the deal – during which Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons – was end in six weeks.

He reiterated that threat on Saturday, but said Netanyahu was willing to make changes to the war system and was ready to “take over the entire Gaza Strip”.

“Look at Gaza, it’s destroyed, it’s depopulated, and it will always be like that,” he said in a Telegram statement. “Do not be impressed by the forced happiness of our enemy . . . Soon, we will erase their smile again and replace it with the cry of grief and the cry of those who had nothing.”

In a short pre-recorded speech released on Saturday evening, Netanyahu said the administrations of US President Joe Biden and his successor Donald Trump supported Israel’s right to launch a war if negotiations over the details of the the second part failed.

“If we have to go back to war, we will do so in new ways, and we will do so with great force,” Netanyahu said.

Earlier on Saturday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said the ceasefire would begin at 8.30am local time (6.30am GMT) on Sunday. Later that day, Hamas is expected to release three hostages and Israel will release 95 Palestinian prisoners in the first exchange under the deal.

However, in a sign of the weakness of preparations, Netanyahu said on Saturday evening that Israel will not proceed with the agreement until Hamas provides a list of hostages to be released. He said: “Israel will not tolerate the violation of the agreement.”

If the agreement is implemented as planned, negotiations on the details of the second phase will begin on the 16th day of the first phase. During this time the remaining living captives will be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and ending the war forever.

The third and final step will include the return of the remaining bodies of the dead prisoners and the beginning of the reconstruction of Gaza, under the leadership of Egypt, Qatar and the UN.