Smotrich rejects Egyptian proposal to end war, says war cabinet has ‘no mandate’ to stop fighting

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich emphatically rejects a recent proposal by Egypt and Qatar to end the war in Gaza and create a technocratic government to govern the territory, together with the West Bank.

The cabinet minister also upbraids Egypt for allowing enormous amounts of munitions to have entered Gaza in the past, and says it should allow Gazans passage across the Egyptian border so they can emigrate to other countries.

The minister, who heads the far-right Religious Zionism party, declares that the war cabinet has “no mandate” to approve such a plan, and says his party would not be partners in a government that agrees to end the war or allows officials from the Palestinian Authority to be involved in governing Gaza.

“The war cabinet has no mandate to stop the war before all the war aims have been achieved,” says Smotrich.

“After years in which Egypt allowed, by turning a blind eye, the crazy arming of Hamas as has been exposed now, the only involvement it can have in Gaza is to allow Gazan residents to leave to it [Egypt] on their way to other countries,” says the finance minister.

“Neither Qatar or Egypt will be involved in the future of what happens in the Strip. You don’t repeat mistakes. Anyone who thinks that the State of Israel will agree to some plan of establishing a government of professionals which Hamas and the Palestinian Authority will be involved in under the guise of technocratic officials is living in an illusion.”