According to Israeli media reports, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reached an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the hostage-truce agreement signed with Hamas in Doha last night. As a result, Smotrich, unlike Itamar Ben-Gvir, will not leave the government.<\/p>\n
Religious Zionism, one of Netanyahu\u2019s hard-right coalition partners, will vote against the ceasefire but will not leave the coalition on the condition that the agreement is temporary. According to\u00a0Channel 12<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0Walla<\/em>\u00a0news website, Smotrich and Netanyahu agreed on the continuation of the Israeli army\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza after the temporary ceasefire and the control of humanitarian aid being transferred to the Palestinian territories. As a result of this agreement, Smotrich and his party, Religious Zionism, will vote against the agreement but will remain in the government.<\/p>\n The ceasefire agreement consists of a first phase, expected to last 40\u201342 days, followed by second and third phases. The second and third phases envisage a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza. The content of the agreement between Smotrich and Netanyahu, as alleged in the news reports, shows that the Israeli army will continue to attack Gaza after the completion of the first phase of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n Last night, Smotrich\u2019s fellow far-right coalition member Itamar Ben-Gvir announced that his\u00a0Otzma Yehudit\u00a0party would leave the government if the agreement is approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to Israeli media reports, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reached an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the hostage-truce agreement signed with Hamas in Doha last night. As a result, Smotrich, unlike Itamar Ben-Gvir, will not leave the government. Religious Zionism, one of Netanyahu\u2019s hard-right coalition partners, will vote against the ceasefire but will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1138,4833,5055,5053,5024,1622,1098,5048,5052,5054,2280,5050,3360,5049,5051],"class_list":["post-7297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middleeast","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-ceasefire-phases","tag-doha-agreement","tag-far-right-politics","tag-gaza-war","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-israel-hamas-ceasefire","tag-israeli-coalition","tag-israeli-media","tag-itamar-ben-gvir","tag-otzma-yehudit","tag-palestinian-territories","tag-religious-zionism","tag-temporary-truce"],"yoast_head":"\n