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Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ignited fresh concern after publicly urging the military to launch a full-scale war in the occupied West Bank and to replicate the tactics it has employed in Gaza, remarks that human rights experts and analysts say cannot be brushed aside as mere campaign posturing.
In an interview with Ynet News published on Sunday, Smotrich said Israel should "go to war" in the occupied territory and repeat what it "did in Gaza," describing the West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria. His comments landed roughly one month before a general election that has been accompanied by rising Israeli and settler violence in the occupied territories, along with increasing demonisation of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Asked how Israel should confront what was described as growing "security tensions" in the West Bank, the far-right minister responded that the country should "do there what we did in Gaza." He argued that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank under the Oslo Accords, should be dismantled and branded it a "terror authority."
Smotrich also pointed to Israeli operations that he said had "cleared out" Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. He urged the military to send a message: just as Hamas was dismantled in Gaza, there would be no "terror infrastructure," no fighters, no weapons and no tunnels in the West Bank.
Suhad Bishara, legal director of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said the remarks represent more than rhetoric. She argued that Smotrich is not merely proposing a war on Palestinians in the West Bank but is already waging one, noting that the refugee camps he boasts of clearing have been destroyed and their residents forcibly displaced. She described his call to replicate Gaza operations as a public declaration of intent to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The intervention comes against the backdrop of an Israeli military campaign in Gaza that has drawn widespread international condemnation. Legal scholars and campaigners have labelled Israel's military actions there a genocide, and a United Nations commission of inquiry panel concluded last September that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The enclave's health ministry says at least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, with much of the besieged territory reduced to rubble.
Since a "ceasefire" took effect in Gaza, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,408 Palestinians, according to the source material. Israeli military maps indicate that the so-called "Yellow Line" — the position to which Israeli forces withdrew under the first phase of the truce — extends between 1.5km and 6.5km inside Gaza from its eastern boundary with Israel, covering roughly 58 percent of the enclave.
Smotrich went further, calling for Israel to annex the territory it controls in Gaza behind that line. He also set his sights on Lebanon, stating that he would "very much like to annex" territory up to the Yellow Line in Gaza and up to the Litani River in Lebanon. He framed such annexations as a way to make Israel's enemies "pay a price" for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
Israel continues to occupy southern Lebanon, and Israeli shelling and demolitions have persisted there despite a United States-brokered "ceasefire" reached in June. Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has previously warned about the dangers of Israeli escalation along the border, though the source article was truncated before detailing his latest remarks.
Bishara said Smotrich's push to annex the West Bank, parts of Gaza and southern Lebanon amounts to a "declared plan to seize occupied land by force and make its theft permanent," conduct she noted is absolutely prohibited under international law. The annexation of occupied territory is widely regarded as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the United Nations Charter.
Smotrich, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, has been sanctioned by a number of Western countries alongside his cabinet colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir. His record includes inflammatory, racist and dehumanising language directed at Palestinians, and he has long advocated for settlement expansion, including the long-frozen E1 project that would sever East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank.
The timing of his latest statements has drawn particular scrutiny. With elections approaching, analysts warn that such rhetoric could be intended to mobilise hardline voters, but they caution that it also reflects concrete policy ambitions. The source article notes that Smotrich's words should not be dismissed as mere electioneering, especially given his position as finance minister within the governing coalition.
The broader context is one of escalating violence. Since Israel launched its war in Gaza, it has intensified its crackdown in the West Bank, arresting thousands of Palestinians — many without formal charges — while settler pogroms against Palestinian communities have continued with little apparent accountability. Those attacks have been documented by human rights groups and described as pogroms in their own right.
The implications of Smotrich's remarks extend beyond the West Bank. His explicit endorsement of annexation in Gaza and Lebanon signals an intent to permanently alter the region's borders, a prospect that could further destabilise an already volatile area and complicate any future diplomatic settlement. For Palestinians, the warning from rights advocates is stark: the language used by a senior Israeli minister may soon translate into policy, with consequences that could mirror the devastation already visited upon Gaza.
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