Smotrich: Israel Will Not Stop War Until Palestinians Displaced from Gaza
Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that Israel will only stop its assaults when “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians are forcibly displaced from Gaza and Syria is dismembered as a state.
“With God’s help and the valor of your comrades-in-arms who continue to fight even now, we will end this campaign when Syria is dismantled, Hezbollah is severely beaten, Iran is stripped of its nuclear threat, Gaza is cleansed of Hamas and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries,” Smotrich said during a speech in the occupied West Bank.
Smotrich supports the reoccupation of Gaza, the rebuilding of illegal Israeli settlements, and the forced displacement of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Smotrich has also called for Israel to annex the West Bank, and he urged Netanyahu to advocate Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.
After resuming its assault on March 18 following a fragile ceasefire, Israel has pledged to intensify its war on Gaza and occupy large “security zones” inside the Strip.
Since March 2, it has also blocked the entry of food, fuel and aid into the enclave, defying an order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it must allow humanitarian access.
The death toll in Gaza has now reached over 52,300, with at least 117,900 wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
US Vice President JD Vance claimed that more humanitarian aid is now entering the Gaza Strip than at any time in the past five years. Palestinians, however, rejected this claim, confirming that Israel continues to impose restrictions on the entry of aid despite the ceasefire.
France has rejected a visa to prominent human rights advocate and Director-General of Al-Haq, Shahwan Jabarin, who was scheduled to address the European Parliament’s human rights committee in Strasbourg, a move that “undermining efforts towards accountability and advocacy for Palestinian rights.”
The US Senate blocked on Wednesday two resolutions that would have stopped the sale of some $450 million in bombs and bulldozers to Israel, amid the assaults on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.