News- Middle East: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said returning the captives from the Gaza Strip is not the most important goal of the regime.

Smotrich angered families of the captives once more on Monday, after he said their return is "not the most important goal" for the Tel Aviv regime.

In an interview with the right-wing Galei Israeli radio station, the extremist minister said terminating the problem is more important than resolving the Israeli captives’ issues.

“We need to eliminate the Gaza problem,” the minister insisted.

Thousands of Israelis staged a protest on Saturday night calling for a deal to end the war and to have the captives released. 

“Do what you should have done a long time ago. Bring them all back now! And in one deal. And if this means to stop the war, then stop the war,” former captive Omer Shem Tov told a rally in Tel Aviv.

The insistence of Smotrich to continue the inhumane war comes days after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for a deal to get the captives back.

Meanwhile, the ruling Palestinian resistance movement in Gaza has expressed its readiness to free all the Israeli captives if the Tel Aviv regime stops its war.

But Netanyahu and his right-wing ministers insist on continuing the genocidal war until the complete elimination of Hamas.

Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed the Israeli regime has “no choice” but to continue the war on Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.

Currently, 59 Israelis remain in captivity, of whom only 24 are believed to be alive.

Israel has killed 51,201 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 2023, with some 116,869 injured.

Israel also destroyed vast parts of the blockaded Palestinian territory, including most of its food production capabilities.

Around 90 percent of the population is displaced, with hundreds of thousands of people living in tent camps and bombed-out buildings.

Source: Press TV