Smotrich: Israel must ‘go to war’ in West Bank, ‘do there what we did in Gaza’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called on Israel to “go to war” in the West Bank, dismantle the Palestinian Authority that governs swaths of the territory and “do there what we did in Gaza.”

Speaking on the Ynet news site’s podcast, the head of the far-right Religious Zionism party also called on Israel to annex the territory that the IDF holds in the Strip and in southern Lebanon as a punishment for the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and Hezbollah’s role in the ensuing regional conflict.

Smotrich has previously called to reestablish Jewish settlements in Gaza, move the border with Lebanon up to the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Israel — and annex more than 80 percent of the West Bank, which he refers to by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria.

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In his campaign for the October 27 election, Smotrich has trumpeted the significant expansion of Israeli settlements in the territory under the current government, in which he also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry responsible for settlement activities.

Asked on the podcast how Israel should combat rising tensions in the West Bank, which has seen multiple attacks on Israelis and near-daily settler violence against Palestinians, Smotrich said, “I certainly have solutions.”

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“I think we need to 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,” said Smotrich, who has brought the PA financial system close to collapse with efforts to cut it off from Israel.

Noting the massive exodus of Palestinians from West Bank refugee camps amid IDF counterterror operations, Smotrich added, “We need to tell the IDF: Just as you dismantled Hamas in Gaza, there won’t be terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. No terrorists, no weapons, no tunnels.”

The PA’s foreign ministry condemned Smotrich’s comments, saying they “expose Israeli plans aimed at undermining the prospects for an independent Palestinian state and imposing a new reality by force.”

“Continued international silence over inflammatory Israeli statements and policies encourages the Israeli government to pursue its plans and risks further tension, violence and instability in the region,” the ministry said, according to the PA’s official news outlet WAFA.

Smotrich also said on the podcast that Israel should exact a “price” from enemies by annexing Gaza’s territory east of the Yellow Line, where Israel withdrew as part of the October 2025 hostage-ceasefire deal, and by annexing Lebanon’s territory south of the Litani River, where the IDF 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,” said Smotrich, “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? … It needs to pay a price.”

Almost a year after the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel holds more than 60% of the Strip’s territory, with the enclave’s roughly 2 million Palestinians almost all living on the Hamas-controlled side west of the Yellow Line.

Israel is supposed to ultimately withdraw entirely from the devastated Strip under the peace plan that US President Donald Trump presented last September, but is currently refusing until Hamas is disarmed.

Meanwhile, the IDF has seized a swathe of southern Lebanon since Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in March in retaliation for the bombing campaign that the US and Israel launched in late February on Iran, Hezbollah’s benefactor.

Hezbollah had also fired on Israel in solidarity with Hamas, starting a day after the October 7 massacre.

Beirut demands an IDF withdrawal, but Israel has been reticent given the Lebanese state’s failure to disarm Hezbollah following a November 2024 ceasefire that ended over a year of conflict. Israel and Lebanon are conducting direct, US-brokered talks on an IDF withdrawal, disarming Hezbollah and an eventual peace deal.

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