The ceasefire with Hamas is not well received, the Israeli minister explodes: I will bring down the government if Israel does not occupy Gaza!

2025-01-19 13:49:37 / BOTA ALFA PRESS
The ceasefire with Hamas is not well received, the Israeli minister explodes: I

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is the head of the Religious Zionist Party, has reportedly called on Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip and install a military government, threatening to topple the government if this does not happen.

Israel "must occupy Gaza and establish an interim military government, because there is no other way to defeat Hamas," he was quoted as saying on Israel Army Radio.

I will topple the government if it does not return to fighting in a way that we can take over the entire Gaza Strip and govern it ,” he said, adding that Israel would provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza in that scenario. Smotrich has called the Gaza ceasefire agreement a “very serious mistake” and “a surrender to Hamas.”

On Thursday, Smotrich's party said in a statement that its condition for remaining in government would be a return to fighting at the end of the first phase of the deal, in order to destroy Hamas and return all hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become more dependent on the support of Smotrich and other far-right elements of his coalition government since former Defense Minister Benny Gantz resigned from Israel's emergency war cabinet last summer, with rows over strategy in the war on Gaza and how to bring home Israeli hostages.

Netanyahu has previously said he does not want to permanently occupy the Gaza Strip.