Smotrich: Gaza fighting insufficient, government ‘has no justification for its existence’ if it isn’t stepped up

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticizes the current prosecution of the war in Gaza, saying that if the fighting isn’t escalated, the current government “has no justification for its existence.”

Speaking on the right-wing Channel 14, Smotrich says that when the ceasefire was signed in January, “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.”

“But unfortunately, this isn’t what is happening,” he adds. “I think it’s time to charge at Gaza. If that doesn’t happen, this government has no justification for its existence.”

Commenting on the outrage he caused earlier by saying that while important, returning the hostages is “not the most important thing,” Smotrich accuses his critics of trying to “silence and shut up an opinion that is the most justified and correct.”