Israeli Minister: "Gaza Will Be Completely Destroyed"... Hamas Also Shows No Interest in Ceasefire

Anxiety Spreads Among Refugees and Hostage Families

Palestinian residents are looking at the site of an airstrike on a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in the Gaza Strip on the 6th (local time). Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

Within the Israeli cabinet, which has announced plans to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, there have even been calls for the complete destruction of Gaza. As the Palestinian militant group Hamas has also adopted a stance of no longer being interested in ceasefire negotiations, even the faintest hope for peace is fading.

According to the Guardian on the 6th (local time), Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister and a figure classified as a far-right hardliner in the Israeli government, stated at a conference held in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank that "the Gaza Strip will be completely destroyed." Regarding the civilians in Gaza, he asserted that "they will be sent to humanitarian zones in the south where there is no Hamas or terrorism," and claimed that "a significant number of them will begin to emigrate to third countries from there."

Smotrich’s remarks came just one day after Israel’s security cabinet approved the "Chariots of Gideon" operation plan, which includes the occupation and retention of territory in Gaza. According to Israeli officials, this operation was scheduled to be fully implemented after U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East tour, which begins on the 12th of this month.

It is not only Israel that has shifted to a cynical attitude. Bassem Naim, a senior official of the Hamas political bureau, said in a media interview that "Hamas is no longer interested in ceasefire negotiations with Israel," according to AFP. Naim stated that "as long as the war of starvation and the purge operations continue in Gaza, it is meaningless to participate in talks or consider new ceasefire proposals," and insisted that the international community must step in to urge Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government to end the war.

According to AP, fatigue and despair are spreading among Gaza residents as Israel moves to expand its military operations. Moaz Kahlout, a refugee from Gaza City in northern Gaza, said that residents now have to use GPS to locate where their homes once stood among the rubble, and questioned, "What is left to bomb?"

Since early March, when Israel began blocking the entry of goods into Gaza, shortages of supplies and nutrition among refugees have already become severe. According to AP, refugee shelters in the camps are crowded with people trying to bring food to their families, but there is not even enough food to provide for them.