Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, vowed on Sunday to oppose extending the ceasefire-and-hostage-release deal with the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza to the second phase if the proposal is brought to a vote in the Cabinet.
“I cannot vote in favor of the next victims—whether in Gush Etzion, Megiddo, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Afula or anywhere else,” the minister said in remarks to the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations event in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Chikli, who was among two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party to oppose the first phase of the ceasefire in the Cabinet last month, said his decision to vote against the outline came after “hearing the assessments from various security officials.
“The reason for my opposition was that I understood who the prisoners were that we were releasing in exchange for our hostages. This deal includes the release of 700 terrorists—terror experts with records of dozens of attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis and wounded thousands,” Chikli explained to the conference on Sunday.
“These are the same terrorists responsible for the Second Intifada and for other severe attacks. For me, this deal is reminiscent of the Shalit deal,” Chikli said, in reference to the 2011 agreement under which Israel freed 1,027 terrorists, including Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
“The commander of Hamas’s attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 was a terrorist released in the Shalit deal,” the Israeli minister noted.
“This deal we made projects weakness. If we had applied more military and international pressure, we could have reached a much better deal months ago,” he said. “In my view, before we proceed with the second stage of the deal, we need to go back to applying effective pressure on Hamas, which would then lead to a far more reasonable agreement.”
Chikli continued, “I believe we are the only country in the world that has stepped back from the battlefield to make a hostage deal. My conclusion from all of this is that we need to be much tougher with our enemies.”
Israel’s s negotiating team currently in Qatar is reportedly focused on the implementation of the current first phase of the ceasefire, with the Cabinet set to meet on Monday to discuss Jerusalem’s position on Phase-2 talks.
Netanyahu is coordinating Jerusalem’s position on the second phase with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Israel will demand the expulsion of Hamas’s leadership from Gaza, the dismantling of its terrorist army and the release of all hostages. Officials in Israel believe that the terrorist group is likely to reject the demands.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said on Sunday that talks were already taking place this week “at a location to be determined.”
Witkoff said in a conversation with Fox News that he had “very productive and constructive” calls on Sunday with Netanyahu, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the head of Egyptian General Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad.
He said they spoke about “the sequencing of Phase 2, setting forth positions on both sides, so we can understand … where we are today, and then continuing talks this week at a location to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of Phase 2 successfully.”
