Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says his critics should thank him “for refusing partial deals that would have deprived” some of the captives, Al Jazeera reports.

“We are now accepting all the abductees only because of this insistence of mine,” the far-right minister said in a video statement on X, replying to criticism by former National Unity lawmaker and ex-Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot towards the minister for voting against the agreement on ceasefire and captive release.

Eisenkot, in a post on X, said that the ministers who voted against the deal were showing “shameful leadership” by trying to abandon the captives who were “abducted on their watch” without mentioning Smotrich or his Religious Zionism party.

Smotrich said: “If, God forbid, we had listened to you, there would have been no chance in the world that we would have reached this great achievement.”