Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been walking a tightrope since voting against the hostage deal in the fateful government meeting on Friday night, January 17. He negotiated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to receive guarantees that the deal would not prevent Israel from completing its other war goals – destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and ensuring that Gaza would no longer pose a security threat to Israel.

An Israeli hostage held for more than a year by Hamas in Gaza was released Thursday morning, marking the first of eight hostages held by the Iran-proxy militia expected to be released throughout t

An Israeli official says that Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, and five Thai nationals in the next hostage release, slated for Thursday.