Freeing Hostages Not the ‘Most Important’ Mission in Gaza: Top Israeli Minister
Israel has been carrying out a genocide inside the enclave
Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist Israeli finance minister who met with top Trump officials in Washington recently, admitted that the return of hostages is not the top objective for Israel’s relentless bombing and starvation campaigns in Gaza.
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“We have to say the truth, returning the hostages is not the most important thing,” Smotrich told Radio Galey Israel, according to The Times of Israel.
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“It is obviously a very important goal, but if you want to destroy Hamas so that there can’t be another October 7, you need to understand that there can’t be a situation where Hamas remains in Gaza,” he said.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of a hostage named Matan Zangauker, posted on X: “The only truth is that for your messianic and psychopathic delusions, you are willing to sacrifice my Matan and an entire country,” according to a translation by The Jerusalem Post.
Hamas has 59 Israelis in captivity — 24 who are believed to be alive.
Last year, Gideon Levy, the columnist for Haaretz, said in an interview that the government had to choose between pursuing its war with Hamas or saving the hostages, and has decided to abandon those taken captive.
“You have to choose between the two because the two will not be achieved together. Israel clearly chose to pursue the war,” he told Al Jazeera.
He said Israel laid out plans to crush Hamas, but said that will never happen.
“But by this, we gave up on the hostages,” he said. “And I don’t see any [ceasefire] deal coming in the coming days or weeks. No way. Israel is not interested.”
Smotrich has said since the start of the war that the ultimate goal is to cleanse Gaza of Palestinians.
Daniella Weiss, a top Israeli settler who served as mayor of a West Bank “settlement” called Kedumim and a close Smotrich ally, said one way to eradicate Palestinians from Gaza is to starve them out.
“They will move,” she said in an interview on TikTok. “The Arabs will move… So, we don’t give them food, we don’t give the Arabs anything, and they will have to leave. The world will accept them.”
Months ago, Giora Eiland, the former head of the Israeli National Security Council, spoke about how rampant disease could benefit the military campaign.
“Who are the ‘poor’ women of Gaza? They are all the mothers, sisters, or wives of Hamas murderers… The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.”
