Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich on Monday excoriated the emerging hostage release deal that Israeli media reported could be reached in a matter of hours or days.

“The emerging deal is a catastrophe for the national security of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said. “We will not be part of a surrender deal that includes the release of arch-terrorists, an end to the war in Gaza, and undermining achievements that were paid for with many lives, while abandoning many hostages.”

“Now is the time to move forward with all our strength, to conquer and cleanse the entire Strip, to finally take control of humanitarian aid from Hamas, and to open the gates of hell on Gaza until the complete surrender of Hamas and the return of all the hostages,” he asserted.

It should be noted that some of the parents of IDF soldiers or young male hostages [whom Hamas considers IDF soldiers even if they were not on active duty on October 7], who would not be released in the first stage of the deal, adamantly oppose the deal, saying that the first stage of the hostage release deal will come “at the price of the blood of their sons.”

Several organizations representing some families of hostages, bereaved families, and reservists, held a press conference at the “Tent of Gevurah” in Jerusalem on Sunday. Speakers at the The Time for Victory Has Come press conference, called on Netanyahu and the government not to agree to a deal that would abandon some of the hostages.

Tzvika Mor, father of hostage Eitan Mor, 23,  and chairman of the right-wing Tikvah Forum, said at the press conference: “Mr. Prime Minister, after 15 months of fighting – the deal you are now presenting to the people of Israel will kill most of the hostages. We are in a situation where Hamas sets the rules for us, instead of us setting them for Hamas. Hamas hasn’t even provided us with information about the hostages so it can always say that it can’t find the hostages and has no clue where they are. I call upon you, Prime Minister, to bring everyone at once, in one day and on one bus. We are not willing to accept a situation of ‘this deal brings us the hostages from the first deal,’ at the cost of the blood of the hostages in the second deal. I want to have my son at home together with everyone.”

Col. (res.) Gilad Ach, the chairman of the Reservists Movement, added: “The State of Israel has completed 15 months of determined battle and we reserve soldiers are paying the price for this war of attrition and for the endless raid strategy, in which we enter the same places again and again, clean them out, leave, and give the enemy time to organize and return to those places. There is only one correct option which is simple and clear – to win and bring a clear defeat to the enemy. A defeat is not an empty slogan, and to make it happen, we need to take two actions: first, conquer territories both on the northern border and in the Gaza Strip that will serve as a significant barrier and prevent enemy buildup. The second is to encourage voluntary emigration of the Gaza residents. Any other solution that is not a clear defeat in this war will only lead to more and more casualties, both now and in the future, and continue the defeatist raid cycles.”

Journalist Caroline Glick, who is the mother of a reservist, said: “We waited for a year and three months for a government that would not prevent us from achieving absolute victory, and now the government that has prevented us from achieving this victory – is leaving. Now is our time to work with our partners in the Trump administration to bring the much-needed reality – an absolute victory over Hamas, preventing the renewed threat from Gaza, and releasing all the hostages. These are the three goals that the Biden administration has indeed prevented us from reaching, and now is our time for victory.”

According to reports, the deal is set to unfold in three stages. In the first stage, about 33 hostages designated as “humanitarian cases” will be released. Afterward, on the 16th day of the ceasefire, the parties will begin to discuss the second stage, which will include the return of young men and soldiers.

In the third stage, the parties will discuss alternative governance in the Gaza Strip and the reconstruction of Gaza.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)