Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the “complete destruction” of the Gaza Strip as he hit out against truce talks between the government and Hamas, Middle East Eye reports.

Writing on X, Smotrich said negotiating with Hamas was irresponsible and members of the group should be killed instead.

“The time has come for the Mossad to return to doing what it was trained to do – to eliminate the heads of Hamas all over the world and not in negotiations that are conducted irresponsibly and harm Israel’s security,” he said.

“With Hamas from now on we should only talk with shells and bombs.”

He said Israel needed to attack Rafah “as fast and as strongly as possible, and then continue with the strip until its complete destruction”.