As long as the hostages remain in Gaza and Hamas still has power, Israel will not end the war, says the ruling party Likud's spokesman Guy Levy.
We will not end the war. The Prime Minister will not allow the war to end, he says to the right-oriented Israeli TV channel Channel 14.
The spokesman takes a hard tone in what he calls "Israel's message to the world". Kidnappings of Israelis are answered with death, the message reads.
If someone kidnaps an Israeli citizen, he should know that we will kill him, and then those around him, and then his village, and then his city and his country – and we will get everyone (kidnapped) back home.
Levy further states that Israel's ruling coalition supports US President Donald Trump's "exile plan". The plan that Trump previously presented together with Israel is said to aim at rebuilding the Gaza Strip by having its inhabitants move away from there "voluntarily".
According to outside assessors, however, it would rather be a matter of forced displacement, since Gaza's Palestinians have generally not given any signals that they want to move. Most Palestinians' starting point is that Gaza is a smaller part of a homeland and a future Palestinian state.
