Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says his critics should thank him “for refusing partial deals that would have deprived” some of the captives.

“We are now accepting all the abductees only because of this insistence of mine,” he said in a video statement on X, replying to criticism by former National Unity lawmaker and ex-Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot towards the minister for voting against the agreement on ceasefire and captive release.

Eisenkot, in a post on X, said that the ministers who voted against the deal were showing “shameful leadership” by trying to abandon the captives who were “abducted on their watch” without mentioning Smotrich or his Religious Zionism party.

Smotrich said: “If, God forbid, we had listened to you, there would have been no chance in the world that we would have reached this great achievement.”

The far-right politician had announced on Thursday that he opposed the deal and would not vote in favour of it at the security cabinet, which later approved the agreement.