Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described, on Monday, the war of extermination waged by Tel Aviv on the Gaza Strip as the longest and most costly in Israel's history.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been waging a war of genocide on Gaza, resulting in more than 147,000 Palestinian deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing.

"We are fighting the longest and most costly war in our history. Without victory there is no security, and without security there is no economy," Smotrich told Israel's Army Radio.

Smotrich did not give an estimate of the current or future cost of the war.

But last September, the Israeli economic newspaper Calcalist said the cost of the war on Gaza was rising dramatically, and the army had raised its total estimate from 130 billion shekels ($36.7 billion) to between 140 and 150 billion shekels (about $39.5-42.4 billion).

Since its establishment in 1948 on occupied Palestinian lands, Israel has never fought a long war as it is currently doing in Gaza, which has negative repercussions on the economy and the army itself, given its heavy reliance on reserve forces.

Indeed, several international economic institutions have downgraded Israel's credit rating in recent months, indicating a decline in the economy.

But Smotrich claimed that "the economy is in much better shape than we expected."

Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, calls for settlement in Gaza and the establishment of an Israeli military government there, in addition to annexing the occupied West Bank.

However, he also claimed that "there is a consensus on the goals of the war, and establishing settlements in Gaza is not part of it, although it is important for security."

In recent months, Israeli institutions, activists and officials have held events, some of them near Gaza, to call for the establishment of settlements in the Palestinian enclave.

Smotrich blamed the Israeli army for refusing to take responsibility for distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza.

"The fact that the army refuses to take responsibility for distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip is...a large part of the reason why the abductees have not yet been returned," he said, referring to the Israeli prisoners in Gaza.

He added: "If this is what is required to ensure security, I do not fear that we will be an alternative to the government in Gaza for a period of time to eliminate Hamas."

Israeli media reported earlier, citing army officials, that assuming responsibility for distributing aid means permanent presence in Gaza and the establishment of a military government.

Israel has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, besieging it for the 18th year, and the war of extermination has forced about two million of its citizens, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in catastrophic conditions, with deliberate deprivation of food, water and medicine.

In addition to the war on Gaza, Israel has been waging a war on Lebanon since September 23, and it also exchanges attacks with Iran and carries out air strikes on Yemen and Syria from time to time.

For decades, Israel has occupied Arab lands in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and rejects the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.