Smotrich Blocks Ceasefire Efforts, Undermines Hostage Release Negotiations in 2024-2025 Conflict

In April 2024, six months after the Hamas attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared ready to prioritize the release of hostages held by Hamas, following advice from intelligence chiefs, security officials, Defense Minister, and former IDF Chiefs of Staff Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot. Netanyahu aimed to secure cabinet approval for a ceasefire plan that would focus first on rescuing hostages before targeting Hezbollah and Iran. However, during a cabinet meeting, Bezalel Smotrich abruptly interrupted, warning Netanyahu that any agreement resembling a surrender would topple the government. Faced with this threat, Netanyahu chose political survival over the ceasefire, promising Smotrich no such deal would be presented.

Despite Netanyahu’s assurances, Smotrich remained unconvinced and threatened to withdraw his faction from the government if the plan proceeded. Consequently, Netanyahu postponed the briefing for the delegation preparing to negotiate hostage releases, downplaying the urgency despite over a hundred hostages being in immediate danger. Smotrich later claimed credit for the hostages’ release in a widely publicized interview, despite having actively obstructed efforts to secure their freedom over two years.

Smotrich initially opposed the first hostage exchange deal in November 2023, only supporting it after assurances that the war would resume immediately. Subsequently, he worked to sabotage further deals, leveraging coalition threats. In February 2024, he dismissed hostage return as the top priority, emphasizing the destruction of Hamas instead. By March, he vowed to oppose any deal trading all hostages for war cessation, viewing the political and military cost as unacceptable.

In June 2024, after President Biden revealed an Israeli ceasefire proposal Netanyahu had not presented, Smotrich again threatened to leave the government if it accepted a deal ending the war without Hamas’s destruction and full hostage return. When reports surfaced in July 2024 that Hamas leader Sinwar might accept a modified Israeli proposal, Smotrich publicly contradicted intelligence sources and urged intensifying military pressure rather than negotiating.

By December 2024, as a new deal matured, Smotrich condemned it as inadequate and harmful to Israel’s goals, opposing political steps within the hostage release framework. In July 2025, he declared no further negotiations with Hamas would occur unless it fully surrendered, released all hostages unconditionally, demilitarized Gaza, and exiled its leaders. Yet, in October 2025, a deal was reached that returned hostages and ended the war, with Israel conceding nearly all preconditions including Gaza’s demilitarization and Hamas’s dismantling. Smotrich voted against this agreement.

Ultimately, Smotrich’s positions proved mistaken: military pressure failed to free hostages and caused casualties, while negotiations secured their release. Although he claims significant influence on the war, his efforts to rewrite history and obstruct peace initiatives have been widely criticized.