JERUSALEM — A far-right Israeli minister said Monday that saving the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is not “the most important goal” in its war with the militant group, adding fuel to a tense debate in Israel over the price it should pay to bring home the dozens of remaining captives.

Bezalel Smotrich, the country’s powerful finance minister, suggested in a radio interview that ensuring that Hamas no longer ruled Gaza after its deadly 2023 attack in southern Israel is a higher priority.

“We have promised the Israeli people that at the end of the war, Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel,” said Smotrich, who has called for building Jewish settlements in the Palestinian enclave. “We need to eliminate the problem of Gaza.”

Israel launched the war in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack with at least two aims: One was to destroy Hamas and restore Israelis’ sense of safety after 1,200 people were killed in the surprise attack. Another was to bring back the 251 people captured in the assault.

Both goals have proved elusive despite the devastating Israeli campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 51,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, who have not said how many of the dead were combatants.

Hamas is demanding a permanent ceasefire in exchange for the release of any more of the remaining hostages. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have insisted that they will not end the war before Hamas surrenders.

The advocacy group Hostages Families Forum denounced Smotrich, saying the Israeli government had “consciously decided to give up on the hostages” in favor of the war effort.

In January, Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas, during which more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight more. Hamas also released five Thai captives during the truce.

Mediators, including the Trump administration, had hoped the initial truce would pave the way for a comprehensive end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages.

About two dozen living hostages and the bodies of more than 30 others are believed to still be in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

But Israel ended the truce in mid-March with a bombardment that killed hundreds of people and sent ground troops to seize swaths of the enclave. Israeli leaders, backed by the United States, blamed Hamas.

More than 36 hostages have died during the 18-month war in Gaza, some of them in Israeli airstrikes. Hamas has continued to fight a dogged insurgency against Israel for well over a year despite heavy losses, leaving critics skeptical that the group can be eliminated.

Speaking Saturday night, Netanyahu hit back at his critics, saying those calling for an end to the war as a way to bring back the hostages were “echoing Hamas propaganda word for word.”

The hard-right Israeli government hopes the Trump administration will allow them a freer hand in Gaza than the Biden administration did, and Smotrich’s remarks coincided with the official start Monday of Mike Huckabee’s tenure as U.S. ambassador to Israel. He presented his credentials to Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, at a ceremony in Jerusalem.

Huckabee — one of the United States’ most prominent evangelical leaders — was governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and a two-time Republican presidential candidate.

A trained Baptist minister, he is a staunch supporter of the Israeli movement to settle and ultimately annex the West Bank, where millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation.

Huckabee has said his support for Israel is rooted in his belief that God made a covenant with the Jews in the Old Testament. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Huckabee said in a video published by BuzzFeed that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”