Reports of Hamas’s agreement to a new ceasefire-hostage release proposal in Gaza on Monday drew swift and mixed reactions in Israel, as proponents of a deal urged the government to reach an agreement, while opponents — including key coalition members — warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against doing so.

The terror group told mediators it accepted a proposal submitted to the group a day earlier, which sources said involves a 60-day pause and the release of 10 living captives, as mediators scrambled to find an agreement before Israel launches its planned campaign to conquer Gaza City.

“You have no mandate to go for a partial deal,” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in a statement addressed to Netanyahu. “The blood of our soldiers is not worthless. We must go all the way. Destroy Hamas.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argued that Hamas has only eased its demands because it fears the planned Israeli offensive in Gaza City would destroy the group.

“Hamas is under great pressure due to the [planned] conquest of Gaza because it understands that this will eliminate it and end the story. Therefore, it is trying to stop it by bringing back the partial deal. This is exactly why we can’t surrender and grant the enemy a lifeline,” he wrote on X.

“Continue to the end, win and return all the hostages in one stage,” he added, sharing a photo of US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post earlier in the day in which Trump said the only way Hamas would return the hostages was if it were “confronted and destroyed.”

MK Zvi Sukkot of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party said: “A partial deal will lead to abandoning half of the hostages, pose a tremendous risk to IDF soldiers in the continued fighting, give Hamas........

© The Times of Israel