Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should do in the occupied West Bank what it has done in Gaza.
He advocated starting a war in the West Bank in an interview published Sunday.
Smotrich referred to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria and said Israeli troops must fight there and repeat what was done in Gaza. He also called for the Palestinian Authority, or PA, to be dismantled.
He described the PA as a terrorist organization.
Asked how Israel should address rising security tensions in the West Bank, Smotrich said no terrorist infrastructure should remain in Judea and Samaria and that there should be no terrorists, weapons or tunnels there.
Violence in the West Bank has risen since Israel began its assault on Gaza in October 2023 and reached alarming levels this year. The United Nations recorded more than 1 thousand 330 attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank from January through late July, an average of six attacks a day.
According to the United Nations, illegal settlers protected by the Israeli military have attacked Palestinians in the West Bank through shootings, home blockades and other forms of organized violence.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said Sunday that Smotrich’s comments reflected Israeli government policy, which it said included killing Palestinians, displacing them from their homes, seizing land and expanding illegal settlements in an effort to annex the West Bank.
The ministry said international silence over such inflammatory statements by Israeli officials would further encourage the government to implement its plans, increasing tension and instability across the region.
As Smotrich made the remarks, the Israeli government announced a military closure across the West Bank for the Jewish festival of Sukkot. The measure will impose additional restrictions on Palestinian movement through Oct. 3.
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