Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich commented on the security situation in the north in an interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News on Wednesday, and claimed that Israel needs to move from defense to attack.
"We should have already gone to war against Hezbollah in the north three months ago and moved the security belt from our territory to their territory," stressed Smotrich.
"Nasrallah is counting on what he identifies as an internal weakness of Israeli society. I think he is hugely mistaken. The people of Israel have demonstrated in the ten months of the war how much determination, faith and cohesion there is, and in any case, the ability to hit the enemy mercilessly," he added.
Smotrich said that Israel needs to act intensively in the north as it did in the south. "We are conducting this interview in Sderot. Right next to us, the IDF soldiers and their heroic, brave and determined commanders continue to destroy Hamas. We are currently operating in Rafah and operating in other places in the Gaza Strip. Anyone who climbs up to the roof and looks over the Gaza Strip will not recognize it from what it was ten months ago and he will not recognize it in a few months either. We are working and we need to work more."
"Our vital need is not to stop the war and walk away, not to enter into a promiscuous and irresponsible deal that will also leave most of the hostages there and abandon them."
Smotrich commented on the claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scuttling a deal to release the hostages, saying, "We all want to return the hostages, I've been wearing the pin for the last few months. We feel their pain and the pain of the families and are committed to returning them. I'm just not ready to abandon most of the hostages there. The current deal wants to bring some of the hostages home, and I'm not making light of it, but it also determines the fate of the great majority of the hostages who will remain there."
"We will eliminate [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar as well. We continue to dismantle their infrastructure and dismantle Hamas in a systematic and thorough manner. This should be continued until Hamas surrenders. When it surrenders, it will return all the hostages to us and the Gaza Strip will not be an area that threatens the State of Israel," the minister added.
Interview with Smotrich (in Hebrew):