Smotrich calls on Israel to 'go to war' in West Bank and annex parts of Gaza and southern Lebanon
Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich used a Ynet podcast on Sunday to call for war in the West Bank and the annexation of Gaza territory to the 'yellow line' and southern Lebanon to the Litani River, drawing a condemnation from the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called on Sunday for Israel to “go to war” in the occupied West Bank and to annex parts of the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, in remarks that drew an immediate condemnation from the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by the Israeli news site Ynet, Smotrich — who also leads the far-right Religious Zionism party — said Israel should “go to war in Judea and Samaria, to do there what we did in Gaza, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, which is a terror authority,” using the biblical name for the West Bank.
He said Israel should make its enemies “pay a price” by annexing Gaza’s territory east of the “yellow line,” the area from which Israel withdrew under the October 2025 hostage-ceasefire deal, and southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, about 30 kilometres north of Israel, where the Israeli military maintains a buffer zone.
“I would very much like to annex at least up to the Yellow Line in Gaza and up to the Litani in Lebanon,” Smotrich said, “not just because of settlement in the Land of Israel, but simply because, if a war ends on the borders it began, what will prevent the enemy from going to war again?”
The PA’s foreign ministry condemned the comments, saying they “expose Israeli plans aimed at undermining the prospects for an independent Palestinian state and imposing a new reality by force,” according to its official news outlet WAFA.
The remarks come as Israel campaigns for elections on October 27. Israel and Lebanon are holding direct, US-brokered talks on an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah’s disarmament and an eventual peace deal — talks the annexation call cuts against.
According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian official figures cited by Dawn, at least 1,110 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the Gaza conflict began, while Israeli figures put 49 Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period.
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