Israel-Gaza live updates: Hamas publishes names of 20 living Israeli hostages to be released

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a post to X on Thursday that he will not vote to support U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed ceasefire deal, saying Israel should continue its campaign against Hamas once the hostages have been returned.

"Mixed emotions on a complex morning," Smotrich -- a prominent advocate of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reviving settlements in Gaza and curtailing any Palestinian political independence -- said in a post to X, expressing "immense joy for the return of all our abducted."

Smotrich heads the Religious Zionism party which controls seven seats in the Knesset and is part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government.

Smotrich said he had "great fear of the consequences of emptying prisons and releasing the next generation of terror leadership, which will do everything to continue spilling rivers of Jewish blood," referring to Israel's agreement to release a large number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

"For this reason alone, we cannot join the short-sighted celebrations and vote in favor of the deal," Smotrich said.

The minister added that he felt a "tremendous responsibility" to ensure that the ceasefire deal does not constitute an agreement for "hostages in exchange for stopping the war."

Smotrich said he hoped that "immediately after the hostages return home, the state of Israel will continue to strive with all its might for the true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza, so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a post to X on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump's "incredible leadership" in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations has left "no doubt that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize."

"This is a morning of historic and momentous news," Herzog wrote, expressing his "full support" for the proposed ceasefire deal.

Of Trump, Herzog said the president "will be received with immense respect, affection and gratitude by the people of Israel" if he visits the country in the coming days.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Thursday morning that it had "begun operational preparations for the implementation" of the proposed ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF said it was "carrying out preparations and a combat procedure for the transition to adjusted deployment lines in the near future. The IDF continues to be deployed in the region and to prepare for any operational development."

-ABC News' Kevin Shalvey

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, in a notice on social media, warned Palestinians not to return to northern Gaza, saying it remains a dangerous combat zone.

"IDF forces continue to surround Gaza City, and returning to it is extremely dangerous," the IDF Arab media spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

In the post, Adraee warned Palestinians not to go north or to approach "areas where IDF forces are deployed and operating anywhere in the Strip, including in the south and east, until official instructions are issued."