Extreme right-wing Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for a complete occupation of the Gaza Strip and, if necessary, military rule by Israel.
“This is the path to securing our safety, and this is the path to bringing the hostages home quickly,” he wrote in Hebrew on the X platform late on Saturday.
He agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that the Gaza war must not end without a complete defeat of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas and its expulsion from the Gaza Strip, Smotrich added.
On Saturday, Netanyahu reiterated his position in a recorded video address.
“We will not end the ‘war of rebirth’ before we destroy Hamas in Gaza, return all our hostages and ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” the prime minister asserted, the Times of Israel reported.
According to Israeli information, there are currently 24 living hostages and 35 bodies of abductees in the Gaza Strip. Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and the release of hostages are currently at a standstill.
The Gaza war was triggered by the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel led by Hamas and other extremist groups, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 Israelis were taken hostage and held in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, around 51,000 people have been killed, a large proportion of them women and children. The information, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, cannot be independently verified.
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