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Smotrich: ‘The time has come to open the gates of hell on Hamas,’ implement Trump plan

17 April 2025, 10:48 pm 8 Edit
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset ahead of a vote on the state budget on March 25, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addresses the Knesset ahead of a vote on the state budget on March 25, 2025.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vows Israel will not give in to Hamas or end the war in Gaza without accomplishing a “complete victory” and returning all the hostages, responding to Hamas’s rejection of a proposal for a ceasefire-hostage release deal.

“The time has come to open the gates of hell on Hamas, to deepen the fighting until the complete occupation of the Strip, the elimination of Hamas, and the implementation of [US] President [Donald] Trump’s plan for the voluntary exit and rehabilitation of Gazans in another country,” he writes on X.

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