Relatives of Israeli prisoners in Gaza said on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are enthusiastic about settling in the Strip at the expense of a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

This came in a press conference held by the families of the prisoners near the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in the city of Tel Aviv, central Israel, according to the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

The authority quoted one of these residents as saying: “The conditions have been met (he did not specify) to conclude a deal to return our sons. Nothing else will bring them back.”

He added: "It is time to conclude a deal that will lead to the release of all detainees (Israeli prisoners in Gaza) at once."

Another said, "Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are rushing to build settlements in Gaza at the expense of our children who are rotting in the tunnels."

On Friday, Avichai Boron, a member of the Knesset (parliament) for Netanyahu's Likud party, called for seizing part of Gaza and settling there, after Smotrich called on Tuesday for reoccupying Gaza and reducing the number of Palestinians there by half through "voluntary" immigration.

More than once, Israeli right-wingers, including Ben-Gvir, have called for resettling the Gaza Strip and pushing Palestinians toward "voluntary" immigration.

Another relative of one of the detainees said during the conference: “The prime minister is supposed to protect the citizens and his soldiers, but he abandoned them. It is time to end this nightmare.”

The Broadcasting Authority indicated that the prisoners' families asked US President-elect Donald Trump to pressure Netanyahu to conclude a swap deal, considering that "he has the most influence on the Israeli Prime Minister."

Earlier on Saturday, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, broadcast a video clip of an Israeli prisoner who holds American citizenship, in which he addressed a message to President-elect Donald Trump, saying: “Please use your influence and all means to negotiate for our freedom.”

The prisoner exchange negotiations between Hamas and Israel have reached a stumbling stage, due to Netanyahu’s insistence on setting new conditions that include “continuing control over the Philadelphi Corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt, and the Rafah crossing in Gaza, and preventing the return of Palestinian faction fighters to northern Gaza (by inspecting returnees through the Netzarim corridor in the middle of the Strip).”

For its part, Hamas insists on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Strip and a complete cessation of war to accept any agreement.

Tel Aviv estimates that there are 101 prisoners in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas announced that dozens of them were killed in random Israeli raids.