Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Hamas militants must surrender their arms and leave Gaza. He was speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting to discuss the next phase of the truce between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants. He has threatened to quit Netanyahu’s ruling coalition if the war is not resumed after the end of the first stage of the ceasefire. The security cabinet convened on Monday evening to discuss phase two of the fragile ceasefire which began on January 19. More than 15 months of war destroyed or damaged more than 69 percent of Gaza’s buildings, displaced almost the entire population, and triggered widespread hunger, according to the United Nations. The Israeli military says 35 of the 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli government says are dead. The United Nations says 70 people are still in Gaza. The death toll is expected to rise to more than 1,000 in the coming days.
