Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an extremist, said, "I will vote against the deal to return all the captives in exchange for ending the war in Gaza."

He added in statements during his participation in a conference in Jerusalem on Sunday evening that the previous exchange deal was made on acceptable terms, pointing out that "the new deal must be made on better terms."

He pointed out that "the situation in which his country has to surrender after many months of fighting is unacceptable," commenting: "I am against a deal where the keys are bigger.. the new truce is longer and it is meaningless."

He cited what happened in the Gilad Shalit soldier deal, adding: "We will not flood the streets with terrorists, we did that with Gilad Shalit and now we are paying the price, we really want to return the captives, but it must happen in a responsible way."

When asked about the army's intention to carry out a military operation in Rafah so that his country would not be able to release the detainees, he replied: "The war has priorities; the first is to defeat Hamas, and to ensure that there is no threat from Gaza to Israel, and the second is to return the detainees."

He continued: "We are working on returning the detainees, and the best way to do that is to increase military pressure, and the worst way is to show how tense you are and your willingness to pay any price."