‘If you are not capable, we will bring in someone who is’: Smotrich, IDF chief clash over Gaza aid distribution

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich clashed with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip during last night’s security cabinet meeting, according to leaked remarks.

According to the leaked remarks, the spat between the two men erupted after Defense Minister Israel Katz informed the cabinet that Israel would have no choice but to resume aid deliveries to the war-torn Gaza Strip within the next week or two, but must ensure that it does not reach Hamas.

Zamir, in response, is said to have told Katz that the military would not be responsible for distributing the aid.

Smotrich is said to have retorted to Zamir that “the army does not choose its missions,” and that the political echelon expects the IDF to be on top of aid distribution in order to ensure that none of the goods falls into Hamas’s hands.

“We have specified to you that you need to prepare for this. We will decide the goal and you will decide how to complete it,” says the finance minister. “If you are not capable, we will bring in someone who is capable. If you do not know how to do it, we will find someone who does.”

At this point, according to the leaked transcript, he is interrupted by lawmakers asking him to lower his tone, but continues: “We determined that no aid will reach Hamas, and I don’t care how that is done. If you don’t know how to do it, then say: ‘Political echelon, I don’t know.’ In a democracy, the army doesn’t select its missions.”

“You will not stand here and say to us, ‘I will not do it,'” the finance minister warns. “That will not happen. Only the political echelon decides what the mission is.”

Turning to the war at large, Smotrich is also said to have criticized Zamir for how it is being waged, telling him that Israel needs to move into a “decisive phase” regarding the future of the Strip.

“There is a new chief of staff, we waited, we were patient, and we have reached the moment in which we need to move on,” he says. “The war cannot continue as it is now, and it cannot go on forever.”