Smotrich says he'll stay in government despite PM's war strategy being 'off the rails'

Finance minister says taking Gaza City won’t secure victory if it leads to partial hostage deal, and Netanyahu may buckle under pressure, but hopes the course can yet be corrected

By Sam Sokol

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and ToI Staff 11 August 2025, 6:56 pm Edit

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that he would remain a member of the government and try to change its direction, days after announcing that he had “lost faith” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy in Gaza, after the cabinet voted last week to take over Gaza City but did not announce a plan to take over the entire Strip or annex it.

“The train has gone off the rails, but I’m staying on it, because I believe that its course can be changed,” Smotrich told the Kan public broadcaster, demanding that large chunks of Gaza remain under Israeli control and sovereignty so that they can be settled, “because that’s the only way to maintain security.”

“This is not the prime minister’s plan, I’m aware of that, but it’s a debate that I don’t think is right to have right now,” he said.

Speaking days after the security cabinet approved a controversial plan to take over Gaza City, the Religious Zionism party chairman said that last week’s decision “unfortunately does not lead us to victory.”

“You cannot take the army, put it into this maneuver that could have a high price – and then stop in the middle,” he declared.

“The proposal is intended to put pressure on Hamas and bring it back to the negotiating table in order to go for a partial deal again that would abandon half of the hostages and stop the war again,” he warned. “Even the very friendly US administration is starting to lose patience.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, August 10, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Smotrich, who has opposed the expansion of humanitarian aid into Gaza, also criticized Netanyahu for having “failed to get the army to take responsibility for the humanitarian space.”

The interview Monday came after members of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party threatened to bolt Netanyahu’s coalition. It was also reported previously that during Thursday’s cabinet meeting, Smotrich had threatened to bring down the government.

MK Zvi Sukkot, of Smotrich’s party, and MK Yitzhak Kroizer, of far-right ally Otzma Yehudit, both said on Sunday that they were worried that the plan to conquer Gaza City was simply a ploy to pressure Hamas back to the negotiating table, resulting in a partial ceasefire and hostage release deal rather than a “decisive” victory over the terror group.

They were joined by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, who said that the cabinet’s decision had brought the nationalist party closer to leaving the government.

Smotrich said Saturday night that while he had previously supported the prime minister for the sake of unity even when they disagreed, “unfortunately, for the first time since the war began, I feel that I simply cannot stand behind this decision and support it. My conscience does not allow it.”

Mourners march with the bodies of the Al Jazeera journalists, whom Israel alleges were also terror group operatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza City, from Shifa hospital to their burial at the Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City on August 11, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Overnight Thursday-Friday, the security cabinet approved a proposal by Netanyahu to take over the densely populated Gaza City, bucking warnings from the army that the operation risks the lives of the remaining hostages in addition to potentially sparking a humanitarian disaster.

In interviews and subsequent press conferences, Netanyahu has said Israel does not want to govern Gaza long term, and only seeks to defeat Hamas and then hand off the Strip to an Arab authority that is neither the terror group nor the Palestinian Authority, while maintaining a buffer zone around the enclave, which would be demilitarized and placed under Israeli security responsibility.

Both Smotrich and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the plan approved by the security cabinet. Netanyahu’s coalition is reliant on Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who seek to occupy the Strip permanently in order to push Palestinians out of the enclave and reestablish Jewish settlements in their place.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir expressed firm opposition to the Gaza City proposal, citing the risk it poses to soldiers and the remaining hostages. Many hostage families are also vehemently opposed to the plan, fearing it will lead to their loved ones’ demise.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the fate of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.