Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a tense two-hour session aimed at keeping Israel’s governing coalition intact amid mounting far-right backlash to President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace deal.

According to Walla News, the meeting — described by one participant as “somber but direct” — followed Ben Gvir’s threat earlier in the evening that his Otzma Yehudit party would leave the government if Hamas “continues to exist” after the hostages are returned. Smotrich, the hardline finance minister who joined part of the meeting, had accused Netanyahu earlier in the day of making a “serious mistake” by halting offensive military operations in Gaza at Trump’s request.

Both men have publicly opposed every previous ceasefire-for-hostages proposal, arguing that any end to the war short of Hamas’s destruction amounts to surrender. But despite their rhetoric, neither has pulled out of the coalition — at least not yet.

Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who lead two of the most ideologically rigid factions in Netanyahu’s bloc, have long pushed for annexing Gaza and resettling it with Israelis — a policy Trump’s 21-point peace framework explicitly rules out. The plan, unveiled at the White House last week and now endorsed by Netanyahu, would secure the release of all Israeli hostages and establish an internationally monitored transitional authority in Gaza, with strict demilitarization guarantees.

The two ministers’ threats have thrown Netanyahu into one of the most precarious moments of his political career, forcing him to balance Israel’s domestic divisions with an agreement backed by Washington, the Israeli security establishment, and a broad swath of public opinion.

Opposition leaders signaled over the weekend that they will back the Trump deal even if parts of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition collapse. “There will be a Knesset majority for this,” one opposition lawmaker said. “No one will stand in the way of bringing our people home.”

Despite the public saber-rattling, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu has maintained near-daily communication with Ben Gvir and Smotrich in recent days, updating them and keeping them closely informed of negotiations. That suggests the prime minister is trying to prevent a full-blown coalition rupture — or at least delay one until after the hostages are freed.

Sources close to Netanyahu told Haaretz the prime minister’s priority is clear: securing the hostages’ release, even if it risks toppling his government. “He would rather see the hostages come home and face new elections than preserve his coalition at their expense,” one aide said — though similar statements from Netanyahu in the past have been met with skepticism.

The political tension underscores the strain inside Israel’s wartime cabinet as the Trump deal moves closer to implementation. While Netanyahu has framed his decision as a moral imperative and a strategic necessity, Ben Gvir and Smotrich see it as capitulation to Hamas and a betrayal of Israel’s long-term deterrence.

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