Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of national security, said he will not agree to “a promiscuous agreement” and therefore resigned
Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and 2 other ministers from the Otzma Yehudit party resigned from their positions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government this Sunday (19 January 2025). The decision was motivated by opposition to the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, which came into force on the same day.
Through a post on his social networks, Ben-Gvir shared the statement about the departure of the 3 ministers and wrote: “We will not agree to a promiscuous agreement. My friends and I in Otzma Yehudit submitted our resignation letters from the government and the coalition this morning”.
With us, a word is a word, we will not agree to a promiscuous deal. I and my friends in Otzma Yehudit submitted our letters of resignation from the government and the coalition this morning.
— Itamar Ben Gvir (@itamarbengvir)
In addition to the 3 members of the Otzma Yehudit party, the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, also expressed opposition to the peace agreement, but did not resign until this Sunday afternoon (19 January). He stated, however, that he will leave the government coalition along with his party, Religious Zionism, if Israel completely ends the war before destroying Hamas.
“I received a commitment that no agreement will be made that prevents Israel from achieving all its objectives. The destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages remain priorities”, declared Smotrich in his .
Ceasefire and release of hostages
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force at 6:15 am (Brasília time) – 11:15 am local time – this Sunday (19 January). There was a delay of 3 hours, as the extremist group did not send the list with the names of the hostages that would be released, one of the agreed terms.
The break was scheduled to start at 8:30 am local time (3:30 am in Brasília). With the delay, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) bombed some regions of the Gaza Strip.
At around 6:15 am, the government of the Prime Minister of Israel, (Likud, right), on X (formerly Twitter) received the list of hostages and that the ceasefire would begin.
The Israeli government approved the agreement with Hamas on Friday (17 January), after 2 days of stalemates, marking progress towards the end of the conflict that has lasted more than 1 year. The text was created by Qatar, Egypt and the USA. It was announced on Wednesday (15th January). Understand how the agreement works.
