Israel-Gaza live updates: Explosions across Gaza as expected ceasefire nears

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a post to X on Thursday that he will not vote to support U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed ceasefire deal, saying Israel should continue its campaign against Hamas once the hostages have been returned.

“Mixed emotions on a complex morning,” Smotrich — a prominent advocate of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reviving settlements in Gaza and curtailing any Palestinian political independence — said in a post to X, expressing “immense joy for the return of all our abducted.”

Smotrich heads the Religious Zionism party which controls seven seats in the Knesset and is part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.

Smotrich said he had “great fear of the consequences of emptying prisons and releasing the next generation of terror leadership, which will do everything to continue spilling rivers of Jewish blood,” referring to Israel’s agreement to release a large number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

“For this reason alone, we cannot join the short-sighted celebrations and vote in favor of the deal,” Smotrich said.

The minister added that he felt a “tremendous responsibility” to ensure that the ceasefire deal does not constitute an agreement for “hostages in exchange for stopping the war.”

Smotrich said he hoped that “immediately after the hostages return home, the state of Israel will continue to strive with all its might for the true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza, so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel.”