Bezalel Smotrich: A partial hostage deal is a bad deal - this is why

Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich said today (Monday) that he opposes a partial hostage deal as abandoning the remaining hostages and leaving Hamas in power to commit even more massacres in the future.

Smotrich said that "we all pray for and are obligated to the return of all the hostages into the embrace of their families, both alive and dead. In this matter there is no difference between right and left, religious and secular, coalition and opposition."

Smotrich then discussed his preferred option for returning the hostages: "tens of thousands of soldiers endangered and are endangering their lives even in these moments to bring about the release of the hostages, hundreds have given their lives in this sacred mission...

"Those heroic soldiers are the ones who created the pressure on Hamas, which allowed for the first deal in which more than a hundred hostages were freed to create the pressure levers with which we can free all the rest."