The far-right Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, renewed his opposition to reaching an agreement to exchange prisoners and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stressing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows their red lines.
Smotrich joined the Minister of National Security and leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party, Itamar Ben Gvir, who has repeatedly opposed this agreement despite Israeli estimates that it is close to reaching it.
Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, told local radio Kol Parma that “this is not the time to give (the Islamic Resistance Movement) Hamas a lifeline,” but rather we must continue to pressure and crush it “until it returns the kidnappers, but in its surrender deal and not in our surrender deal.” “, according to his expression.
The extremist Finance Minister described the Palestinian prisoners who might be liberated as “murderers who return to killing Jews.” He also said that leaving the northern Gaza Strip and allowing a million of its residents to return would mean “eliminating the achievements that were achieved with much blood,” as he claimed, and was considered a result of that. That the deal was a “terrible mistake.”
Smotrich continued, “The deal is not good and does not serve the goals and interests of the State of Israel, nor victory in the war, nor the return of the kidnapped, because in the end it is a partial deal,” according to his claim, stressing that Netanyahu “fully knows our red lines.”
In recent months, Israeli media reported that Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s opposition to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement prevented Netanyahu from agreeing to several offers for fear of them toppling his government.
Smotrich and Ben Gvir demand the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, the establishment of Israeli settlements in the North Governorate, and the displacement of its Palestinian residents.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced yesterday, Tuesday, that Tel Aviv intends to take security control of the Gaza Strip and reserve the right to military action there after the war, as is the case in the occupied West Bank.
The previous statements come at a time when Israeli officials and media indicate that reaching an agreement to exchange prisoners and a ceasefire in Gaza is closer than ever before.
Meanwhile, Hamas said yesterday, Tuesday, that it is possible to reach an agreement with Israel for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an exchange of prisoners, if it does not set new conditions.
Tel Aviv holds more than 10,300 Palestinians in its prisons, and estimates that there are 100 Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas announced the killing of dozens of its prisoners in random Israeli raids.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel – with absolute American support – has been committing genocide in Gaza that has resulted in more than 152,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that killed children and the elderly, in one of the worst… Humanitarian disasters in the world.