Bezalel Smotrich Calls for West Bank War and Annexations

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the Israeli military to go to war in the occupied West Bank to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, claiming the organization supports terror. Speaking on a Ynet podcast, Smotrich argued that ending conflicts on the same lines they began fails to deter enemies and suggested Israel should do in the West Bank what it did in Gaza.

Smotrich further advocated for the annexation of territory in the Gaza Strip up to the yellow line and in southern Lebanon as far as the Litani River. The Palestinian Authority condemned these remarks as an explicit call for escalation, annexation, and displacement designed to undermine the prospects of an independent Palestinian state.

These statements coincided with escalating Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon, where the army deployed tanks and conducted airstrikes and house demolitions in towns like al-Mansouri to target Hezbollah infrastructure. In the West Bank, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara postponed the bidding deadline for the E1 settlement project until after the October 27 elections to prevent the tender from being used as election propaganda, a decision Smotrich condemned.