Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized the government for not pursuing a more hard-line approach in Gaza, reiterating that Israel's goal must be the enclave's full occupation.
"I said unequivocally that we would return to fighting in a completely different way: aiming to subdue, to defeat, to destroy Hamas, to conquer the Gaza Strip and impose military rule on it, to take territory and signal internally and externally that anyone who messes with us is demolished," he told Channel 14.
Smotrich added that the Israeli cabinet has not implemented such a strategy. "If that doesn’t happen, this government has no justification for its existence," he concluded.