Smotrich on visiting Nir Oz: "You don't leave here the same as you came in"

Religious Zionist party leader and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich visited Kibbutz Nir Oz today (Tuesday), where he toured the destructive fallout of Hamas' October 7th Massacre.

Smotrich toured the burnt and wrecked houses and spoke with many of the survivors of the massacre, including people who still have loved ones being held hostage in Gaza.

At the end of the visit, he said that "I think you for opening your doors and your hearts, it's not obvious. It's not trivial, I'm not sure that if I was in your shoes that I'd be able to invite, accept, and look in the face of those who ultimately are part of those responsible for a terrible and awful failure."

He then said that "on a personal level, I live with this, I have gone to sleep and woken up with this for a year, now. It's a different experience than yours, but with a sense of responsibility and guilt and primarily with the commitment to fix what I can."