JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that Israel will not end the war in the Gaza Strip until hundreds of thousands of Palestinians leave the enclave.

“We will end this campaign when Syria is dismantled, Hezbollah is severely beaten, Iran is stripped of its nuclear threat, Gaza is cleansed of Hamas and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries, our hostages are returned, some to their homes and some to the graves of Israel,” said Smotrich during his speech in the Eli settlement in the central West Bank.

He claimed that these are not only the goals of the government but rather a consensus of the Israeli people and soldiers.

Smotrich appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do everything to strengthen Israel’s security” and warned him to not "miss this opportunity."

The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with the resistance group Hamas.

Over 52,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.