Israeli finance minister calls for full occupation of northern Gaza

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called Monday for the complete occupation of the northern Gaza Strip to force Hamas to release Israeli hostages.

“To bring the hostages home, we must occupy northern Gaza entirely and tell Hamas that if they don’t return them, we will stay there forever, costing Gaza a third of its territory,” Smotrich told a meeting of his Religious Zionism Party.

Since Oct. 5, Israel has launched a large-scale ground operation in northern Gaza to allegedly prevent Palestinian resistance group Hamas from regrouping.

Palestinians, however, accuse Israel of seeking to occupy the area and forcibly displace its residents.

Since then, no humanitarian aid, including food, medicine, and fuel, was allowed into the area, leaving most of the population there on the verge of imminent famine.

More than 2,000 people have since been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Calling to continue Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, Smotrich dismissed the idea of a cease-fire agreement with Hamas.

“Reaching an agreement with Hamas to end the war would mean surrender and defeat,” he said.

“We will continue until Hamas is eliminated and an agreement is reached under which it surrenders. We won’t stop until our enemies are destroyed and security is fully restored to the State of Israel,” he claimed.

As the Israeli army is still struggling to achieve its objectives in Gaza, the extremist minister alleged that “by the end of this war, we will have full freedom of action in Gaza and will not accept any settlement worth less than the paper it’s written on.”

He also suggested that the Israeli military should oversee humanitarian aid to Gaza, claiming such aid currently prolongs Hamas’s rule.

His remarks coincided with an offer by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of approximately $1.3 million for information leading to the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Netanyahu has repeatedly outlined three objectives for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza: freeing the hostages, dismantling Hamas, and ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel’s security. However, none of these objectives have been achieved over a year into the conflict.

Earlier on Monday, families of Israeli hostages protested outside Netanyahu’s residence in West Jerusalem, demanding a prisoner exchange deal with Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza.

Israel estimates that around 101 captives are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, some of whom are believed to have been already killed by indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes across the densely populated enclave.

Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar have so far failed to achieve a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap deal, but Washington maintains that Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Oct. 18 may lead to a breakthrough in talks.

Hamas, however, says the conflict will only end when Israel stops its military campaign in the blockaded enclave, which has killed over 43,900 people since October 2023.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio