Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Saturday night commented on the comparisons that were made between the conditions of the hostages held by Hamas and the horrors of the Holocaust, condemning the use of Holocaust-related terms when discussing the hostages.
"The suffering of our hostages in the cruel captivity of Hamas is heartbreaking, but comparisons to the Holocaust are a grave mistake and trivialize the Holocaust. There was only one Holocaust, and nothing – as horrific as it might be – compares to it," said Smotrich.
"But to those who still compared today the treatment by Hamas of our hostages with the Holocaust and seek to make us surrender to Hamas because of it, I have a question: Would you have signed a deal with Hitler that leaves the Nazis in power and allows them to prepare for the next Holocaust? Of course not. And that's why there will be no deal that leaves Hamas in power and allows it to plan the next October 7th. Absolutely not," he stated.
Smotrich added that, alongside efforts to return all the hostages, Israel's main goal is the complete elimination of Hamas. "Hamas and everything and everyone connected to it in the Strip and outside it must be destroyed and eradicated from the face of the earth, so that no one on earth would ever think of kidnapping Jews and treating them like this again."
Smotrich’s comments came after Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, the three hostages who were freed by Hamas on Saturday after 491 days in captivity looked gaunt and in poor physical health.
A medical source who treated the three released hostages said their condition does not differ from the condition of the Jews who suffered in the Nazi concentration camps.