Israel agreeing to end the “war in Gaza” in exchange for captives held by Hamas would damage the “security of Israel’s citizens”, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, Al Jazeera reports..

The demand would be a defensive alliance between the United States and Hamas, under which the former will give “all the murderers, slaughterers and rapists in fact full impunity and prevent Israel from destroying it”, wrote Smotrich on X.

“Any Israeli leader who agrees to this, by signing or turning a blind eye, will be forever remembered for knowingly neglecting the security of Israel’s citizens,” Smotrich said, urging an operation in Rafah “now and immediately, with full force”.