Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the Israeli military should “go to war” in the occupied West Bank and repeat what it “did in Gaza”. In an interview with Ynet News published on Sunday, he made the remarks amid escalating violence against Palestinians.
Using a biblical term for the occupied West Bank, Smotrich told Ynet that Israel needs 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”. He was responding to a question on how Israel should combat the increasing “security tensions” in the occupied West Bank.
“We need to tell” Israeli forces, he said, “Just as you dismantled Hamas in Gaza, there won’t be terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. No terrorists, no weapons, no tunnels.” His comments come as Israeli violence against Palestinians has steadily grown since the eruption of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, with attacks intensifying significantly this year.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded more than 1,330 settler-related attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank from January to late July, averaging six a day, the highest rate in about 20 years. Various settler groups, often supported or protected by Israeli soldiers, have attacked Palestinians in several ways, including shootings, besieging homes and engaging in other forms of communal violence that experts have described as “pogroms”.
Rights groups warn that settlers are increasingly armed with military-issued weaponry and wear military uniforms during attacks, blurring the line between settler and soldier. The comments come as Israeli authorities announced a comprehensive military closure across the occupied West Bank, citing the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The heightened restrictions on the movement of Palestinians are set to remain in place until October 3.
Meanwhile, in occupied East Jerusalem, hundreds of Israelis stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy protection from Israeli police on Sunday. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the Israelis entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate and performed Talmudic rituals, as Israeli forces increased restrictions around the mosque and across Jerusalem’s Old City.
Source: www.aljazeera.com