Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday morning called on Israel to extract a heavy price from Lebanon - not just from Hezbollah - for Hezbollah's ceasefire violation on Monday.
On Monday, Hezbollah launched two rockets towards the Mount Dov area in northern Israel. The rockets fell in open areas, and no one was injured.
"The IDF is enforcing the agreement and the Lebanese government needs to pay a price so that it has an incentive to enforce the agreement," Smotrich told Kan Reshet Bet.
Regarding the IDF's retreat over the sixty days specified in the agreement, he said, "Everything depends on the Cabinet decision and the implementation of the agreement."
When asked about the IDF remaining in Gaza in order to prevent Hamas from recovering its power, he responded, "Even if it costs 250 billion, if that is what is needed for security, all of the attempts to threaten us - I prefer to pay that in installments over the course of years instead of paying in blood."
Rejecting the claims that a military government in Gaza would cost Israel at least 25 billion NIS annually, he said, "There is no greater lie than that. It doesn't cost that much money. They told me, 'It'll cost five billion,' but it'll cost a maximum of a few hundred million."