Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has threatened to resign from the government if it ratifies the ceasefire deal.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lead a vote for the ratification of the deal on Friday morning.
The national security minister said the deal was “irresponsible” and “reckless”.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Yair Lapid has pledged his support for the prime minister, saying that the deal was “more important than any disagreement we’ve ever had.”
News360 Info reports that fighting has continued in Gaza despite expectations of a ceasefire, with at least 80 Palestinians killed and hundreds more injured by Israeli airstrikes since the ceasefire announcement, according to the civil defence agency.
The Israeli military said that it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets” across Gaza since late Wednesday.
A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.
Ben-Gvir said, “The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” he said in a televised statement, saying it would “erase the achievements of the war” by releasing hundreds of Palestinian militants and withdrawing from strategic areas in Gaza, leaving Hamas undefeated.
In a similar vein, the country’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, also said he would resign if Israel withdraws from the Philadelphi corridor, as outlined in phase one of the ceasefire deal.
In a statement posted to X, he wrote, “I hereby undertake that if, God forbid, there is a withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor (before the war goals are achieved), or if we do not return to fighting in order to complete the war goals – I will resign from my position as a government minister.”
Chikli is the first member of the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led Likud party, to threaten to quit over details of the agreement.
