Ben Gvir: The hostage deal and the ceasefire cost us dead soldiers

 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told Channel 12 News on Saturday night that the temporary ceasefire which Israel agreed to as part of the deal to release hostages cost Israel in the form of dead soldiers.

"I said before the deal that if there is a prisoner deal and we halt the fire, we will give oxygen to Hamas and it will cost us in fallen soldiers," he said. "Don't you see what is happening, that every day more soldiers are falling?".

Journalist Ben Caspit, who conducted the interview alongside journalist Amit Segal, stressed that "soldiers were killed even before the ceasefire, soldiers are killed in war".

Ben Gvir then continued, "We are still prisoners of the concept. If we give fuel to our enemy, we are stuck in the concept. If we send the head of the Mossad to the capitals of the world to beg and ask Hamas for a ceasefire, we are stuck in the concept. Why should we beg? They should be the ones begging. "

To Segal's question: "What is your red line?", the minister replied, "My red line is the decision. If there is no war and power, I am not in the government. I also told the Prime Minister - my vote is not automatic, he knows when I vote in favor of things. Before the war I voted against the government on all kinds of things. I said that if there are no bombings and they don't act properly in Gaza - I will have a problem."

He later clarified, "Netanyahu often adopts Gantz's approach. I'm trying to turn the tables. Tomorrow I will meet with the Prime Minister and try to convince him again - don't follow Gantz's path, look what happened in the years when we acted like that."

Later in the interview, Ben Gvir commented on recent reports about the unusual confrontation he had with the Chief of Staff at the Cabinet meeting and said, "I have all the respect in the world for the Chief of Staff, but the defense establishment is captive to the concept. The days are over when it is forbidden to criticize. We are not allowed to tell the Chief of Staff that our soldiers should not be suspended? Discipline in the army is indeed none of my business, but when the IDF issues a message 'We have suspended the soldier who recited ‘Shema Yisrael' - what tailwind does this give to the soldiers on the battlefield?"

The comment was in reference to the incident in which soldiers recited the Shema Yisrael prayer over the loudspeaker of a mosque in Jenin and later sprayed on its walls, "We came to eat hummus."