A number of Israeli politicians, including from within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, issued on Sunday political threats in an attempt to pressure the prime minister to order an immediate invasion of the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
The threats joined similar comments made during the past week, and indicate mounting public pressure amongst Israel's right-wing to stop negotiating with Hamas to release the Israeli hostages and instead push forwards with an attack on the final significant Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
Economy Minister Nir Barkat (Likud) said in a statement that "a government that does not destroy Hamas has no right to exist." Barkat connected his call to Holocaust Remembrance Day, arguing that Israel had to use all of the tools at its disposal in order to ensure that "another Holocaust does not happen."
Barkat is the most senior Likud minister so far to threaten the government's existence. His comments echoed those of far-right National Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who warned repeatedly during the past week that agreeing to an extended cease fire as part of a hostage deal would bring down the government. While Ben-Gvir used vague language, saying that the prime minister "knows what will happen if he approves the deal," Smotrich explicitly threatened to leave the government.
'Moment to leave government may arrive,' MKs say
A Knesset member from Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party, MK Ohad Tal, added on the Knesset TV channel that "it is possible that the moment [of leaving the government] will arrive."
A few dozen protestors from a group called the Heroism Forum, comprised of family members of IDF soldiers killed in action during the Israel-Hamas war, demonstrated in front of the prime minister's office ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday in favor of invading Rafah. Notably, some nine ministers joined the protestors at different points and repeated their calls.
Knesset members from National Unity and from the opposition are also applying pressure on the prime minister. Three members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC), MKs Matan Kahana (National Unity), Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid), and Efrat Rayten (Labor), penned a letter on Sunday to committee chair MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), demanding that the committee summon members of Israel's war cabinet to provide an update regarding a possible hostage deal or Rafah operation. The MKs noted that it had been over a month since Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last attended a committee meeting (April 2), and that the committee was authorized by law to oversee the government's actions on security and foreign policy.
National Unity Knesset member Michael Biton said on Knesset TV later on Sunday that the party will leave the government "soon", and will bring forward a law to disperse the Knesset and head to an election in September.