Zini's warning in the cabinet: "Hamas's agreement is a deception exercise"
A stormy late-night cabinet discussion regarding the agreement to operate multinational forces in Gaza and the roadmap for demilitarization leading to a Palestinian state. Ministers demanded that Benjamin Netanyahu stop the move, Netanyahu committed to act. All details and quotes from the meeting.
Two documents were at the heart of yesterday's cabinet discussion. The first dealt with the operation of multinational forces in Gaza, and the second was the roadmap for demilitarization leading to a Palestinian state.
The grave warnings voiced in the room made it clear that the mode of operation specified in them could have fateful consequences, and the ministers pressured Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the process.
The head of the Research Division in Aman, Brigadier General Ofir Mizrahi-Rosen, explained the 'deception':
"Hamas agreed to the 15-point document, but did not abandon the vision of destroying Israel. There is a noticeable effort by Hamas to pass the ball to us."
He also warned of the danger of internationalizing the conflict, the entry of foreign forces near Israeli communities, and the entry of Qatar and Turkey into the mechanism for operating the multinational forces.
"A strategic deception process"
Shin Bet head David Zini warned in his turn:
"The Hamas signing event is a strategic deception process, aimed at gaining time and ensuring that we do not return to operate in Gaza until the elections. There is a strategic ambush by Hamas here. There is deception here."
Against the backdrop of the warnings, the head of the National Security Council, Shmuel Ben Ezra, clarified that Israel did indeed submit amendments to the documents to the USA. Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the unacceptable gap between the 2025 agreements and the current document:
"We received the document after the last cabinet meeting. We have understandings from November 2025 with the USA that contradict this document (the roadmap). We submitted amendments."
Minister Ze'ev Elkin called for practically clarifying Israel's position regarding the document, meaning returning to activity in Gaza:
"If Israel does not carry out offensive activity for two weeks, the meaning is that we have accepted and entered the process. Therefore, it must be published that we are not signing these 15 points."
Ministers Orit Strock, Bezalel Smotrich, and Avi Dichter supported this demand. Bezalel Smotrich said to Benjamin Netanyahu:
"You are a navigation champion, but now that there is an official document, one must delegitimize this document. One cannot navigate."
Do not mistake the navigation
The head of the National Security Council said that there is great pressure on Israel to enter the 14-day period, return to the yellow line, and avoid targeted killings. Avi Dichter said:
"We defined a goal of destroying Hamas - one cannot return from it."
Bezalel Smotrich added:
"This case is a navigation that leads to a crash. One must say in the most basic way: Hamas should not remain. It should be erased, period."
Orit Strock noted that moving to the "Ramallah Law" in Gaza means recognizing legitimacy for murdering Jews:
"The Ramallah Law that is supposed to apply in Gaza is antisemitic and there has been nothing like it since Nazi Germany."
"No to the roadmap"
'Otef Israel Forum' strengthens the hands of the cabinet members who opposed last night the implementation of the roadmap for Gaza in its current format out of a clear understanding that its implementation constitutes a clear danger to the residents of the Gaza envelope and to the security of Israel as a whole. The heads of the local authorities in the envelope issued a letter to the cabinet about their opposition to the rehabilitation of Gaza before the collapse of Hamas.
We call on the government - we do not accept any work plan that does not place Israeli control at the center for the security of Israel before any step of rehabilitation in Gaza. Do not reward terror - defeat it.
