Under pressure, Netanyahu refused to call a truce to maintain government

A long report by The New York Times reveals that there was a possibility of a ceasefire agreement in April 2024 (six months after the massacre of October 7, 2023) but Benjamin Netanyahu refused this agreement because it would jeopardize the viability of his coalition government.

The prime minister leads a fragile coalition that depended on the support of far-right ministers who wanted to occupy Gaza, not withdraw from it. These ministers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich , advocated a long war that would ultimately allow Israel to reestablish Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Netanyahu's conviction is that if a ceasefire came too soon, these ministers would dissolve the governing coalition—which would lead to early elections, which polls indicated Netanyahu would lose.

The proposal on the table would have halted the war in Gaza for at least six weeks and opened a window for negotiations with Hamas on a permanent truce. Furthermore, more than 30 hostages captured by Hamas at the beginning of the war would have been released within a few weeks, and others could have been freed if the truce had been extended.