Two far-right Israeli parties say they won't support proposed hostage deal

Two far-right Israeli parties that are members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government suggested Tuesday that they would not support the hostage deal being considered by the government.

The Religious Zionism Party, headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said: “The suggested deal is bad and we must not agree to it. It’s bad for Israel’s security, for the hostages and for IDF soldiers,” adding, “The only way to return all the hostages is to continue applying military pressure on Hamas until its complete surrender.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party said it would “find it very difficult to support the deal,” and that “our demand is a deal that releases everyone, but on our terms.”

Both parties’ statements suggested they had not yet seen the full terms of the deal.

Neither Smotrich nor Ben Gvir is a member of the war cabinet, which is currently meeting to consider the deal. 

Both are members of the security cabinet, which is due to meet at 12 p.m. ET.

More on the hostage deal: The Israeli government aims for at least 50 hostages to be released as part of the deal being mooted Tuesday – 10 per day for five days – an Israeli government source told CNN. The government would be prepared to extend the deal if Hamas is prepared to release more hostages.

During the days that the fighting is paused, Israel would stop flying surveillance drones over Gaza for at least six hours each day, one person familiar with the talks said.

Under the forthcoming agreement, Hamas would also gather up any additional women and children hostages during the period that fighting has paused – something the group has insisted that it cannot do until a sustained ceasefire is in place. The temporary ceasefire would potentially be extended beyond that for more hostages to be released.

Hamas has also demanded hundreds of trucks of aid, much of it fuel, as part of the negotiations. Fuel is key to running its military operations and ventilating the group’s network of underground tunnels in Gaza.