Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly refused to hold a vote on a proposed hostage-ceasefire deal at a stormy cabinet meeting that went on until the early hours of Monday morning, saying it was not on the table and that US President Donald Trump had pushed him not to accept a partial deal.

The premier’s dismissal of the topic came despite far-right ministers pressing him to hold a vote to officially reject the deal, while the chief of staff and some cabinet ministers pushed for it to be accepted, according to multiple leaks from the closed-door meeting that were published on Monday.

The security cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, which lasted almost six hours, focused almost entirely on the Israel Defense Forces’ plans to take over Gaza City, according to reports in Hebrew media.

During the discussion, IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir urged discussion of the deal and warned that the plan to conquer Gaza City would drag Israel into a full-fledged occupation of the Strip, according to leaked comments carried by the Ynet news site and other Hebrew outlets.

“You are heading to a military government,” Zamir reportedly said. “Your plan is leading us there. Understand the implications.”

Zamir, who has previously been widely reported to oppose the Gaza City takeover plan, argued to ministers that the scheme lacked a coherent exit strategy, and would instead pull Israel deeper into the Strip.

“Your decision to conquer Gaza City — and afterwards this will lead to the conquest of the refugee camps in central Gaza — and then it will be a military government, because there will be no other body that could take responsibility for the population,” Zamir was said to have warned.

His comments were reportedly rejected by cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs, who insisted on the government’s official opposition to a military administration of the Strip, despite Jerusalem refusing to approve any alternative for the day after the war.

The government has advanced the takeover plan in recent weeks despite the Hamas terror group saying several weeks ago it had agreed to a phased hostage-truce deal almost identical to one Israel had previously approved. In the interim, Jerusalem had officially given up on phased deals, demanding a comprehensive agreement to return all the captives in one go and see Hamas surrender.

According to reports, Zamir insisted on raising the issue of the proposed deal even though it was not on the agenda.

The deal — which Hamas said it agreed to on August 18 — would see 10 living hostages released and the remains of 18 dead hostages returned, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners and some 1,000 Gazan detainees, and a 60-day ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held for the return of the remaining 20 hostages, of whom 10-12 are believed to be alive, and a permanent end to the war.

Zamir told cabinet members that “there is a framework on the table, [and] we must take it,” according to Channel 12, which said that, had Zamir not raised the issue, it would not have come up in the meeting.

The IDF chief of staff reportedly told ministers that Operation Gideon’s Chariots — the IDF offensive launched after the previous........

© The Times of Israel