"What you call Palestine is the land of Israel," Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa'ar told a journalist at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
The journalist, who is from Nablus, had asked Sa'ar about the process of removing Hamas from Gaza and the West Bank.
"We have an enemy who has never abandoned the path of incitement. Unfortunately, the Palestinians are more interested in destroying Israel than building themselves," Sa'ar added.
"One of the goals of the war is to return all the hostages. Every hostage we bring back brings us closer to realizing this goal," he said.