Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized what he described as "naivety" of US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for imposing military rule in Gaza, according to local media on Monday.
"We did great things like kill tens of thousands of terrorists, but we still haven't completely eliminated Hamas," Channel 12 quoted Ben-Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, as saying during a Security Cabinet meeting on Sunday evening.
"We have to dismantle and disarm it. Enough with Kushner and Witkoff's naivety — if Rafah Crossing opens, it will be a big mistake and a very bad message," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he agrees to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt after completing the search for the remains of Sgt. Maj. Rani Gvili, the last Israeli captive in Gaza.
Israel was supposed to reopen the crossing, a vital route for aid deliveries, in October under the ceasefire deal that took effect on Oct. 10, but Tel Aviv has refused to do so.
The second phase of the ceasefire agreement began in mid-January and includes provisions related to disarming Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza.
Hamas has rejected calls to surrender its weapons, proposing instead that they be "stored or frozen." The group stresses that it is a resistance movement against Israel, which the UN considers the occupying power in Palestinian territories.
Sunday's meeting followed talks between Netanyahu and both Kushner and Witkoff to review the plan, which several Israeli ministers oppose, Channel 12 said.
Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, warned during the meeting that failure to impose military rule in Gaza would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"If we do not control there with military rule—the meaning is that we will get a Palestinian state," he claimed.
Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock, also from Religious Zionism party, said Israel was "handing Gaza to the Palestinian Authority with the blood of our children," according to the report.
"This cabinet will ultimately make a decision to send our soldiers to fight Hamas because no one else will do it—and then what will we tell them?"
Transportation Minister Miri Regev of Netanyahu's Likud party echoed a similar view, saying that Israel must ensure that Gaza is governed neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority.
More than 71,000 Palestinians, mostsly women and children, have been killed and over 171,000 others injured in a brutal Israeli war since October 2023 that has also left the enclave in ruins. The UN estimates the cost of Gaza reconstruction at about $70 billion.
Israel was established in 1948 on land seized during mass displacement of Palestinians and later occupied the remaining Palestinian territories. It continues to reject withdrawal and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
