Smotrich: Israel Must “Occupy Entire Northern Gaza Strip”

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that Israel must “occupy the entire” northern Gaza, and threaten to remain there indefinitely. Israel has been accused of committing ethnic cleansing there through the Generals’ Plan.

“In order to return the hostages, we need to occupy the entire northern Gaza Strip, and inform Hamas unequivocally that if the hostages are not returned home safe and sound, we will apply Israeli sovereignty there and remain forever, and Gaza will lose a third of its territory,” Smotrich told reporters in the Knesset.

Smotrich said that, “together with the separation of fronts [between Gaza and Lebanon], and the freedom of action and backing that we will receive, God willing, from the Trump administration, it will be possible to defeat Hamas and bring our hostages home, safe and sound.”

Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio on Monday, Smotrich called on the Israeli military to administer both humanitarian aid and security in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“The [Israeli military’s] refusal to take responsibility for distributing humanitarian aid in the Strip is a bigger failure than 7 October, and is a big part of the reason the kidnapped soldiers are not here yet,” he said.

He added that despite the demands and insistence of Israel’s political sphere, “the Israeli army strongly refused to take on anything that smelled of military administration”.

“If this is what is required in order to ensure security, then I am not afraid that we will be an alternative authority in the Strip for a certain period in order to eliminate Hamas.”

On the northern front, Smotrich rejected the prospect of a truce deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon, stating that Israel was “clearing” areas of southern Lebanon in order “to ensure that [northern Israeli] residents can return safely” to their homes.

“The years of containment in which the enemy’s power grows are over. The agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on.”

Smotrich: History of Inflammatory Remarks

Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Smorrich has repeatedly made inflammatory and racist remarks that call for Israel to annex the Gaza Strip and reestablish Israeli settlements there.

On August 5, Smotrich suggested that starving the entire population of Gaza might be “justified and moral” in order to release the Israeli captives.

“We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he said.

On November 14, 2023, Smotrich stated: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world.. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty and danger.”

He added: “The State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza”.

On January 1, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich presented the migration of Palestinians as a solution for securing the stability necessary to allow Israelis in the south to return.

The “correct solution” is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees,” Smotrich said, predicting that “Israel will permanently control the territory of the Gaza Strip,” including through the establishment of settlements.

In late October, addressing a conference in occupied Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, Smotrich said that Israel must free itself “from wrong concepts” and make an “unequivocal Israeli statement to the Arabs and the entire world that a Palestinian state will not be established,” through “the establishment of new cities and settlements deep in the [West Bank] and bringing hundreds of thousands of additional settlers to live in them.”

He added that Israel must also extend its control to Gaza, explaining that “where there is no civilian presence, there is no long-term military presence, and unfortunately, we have seen and in the past year we have received very painful evidence that when there is no military presence for a long time, there is no security and there is an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, and we must not allow this.”

Last week, he announced that 2025 would be the year to fully annex the West Bank and eliminate “the danger” of a Palestinian state, stressing that Trump’s victory in the U.S. election will be an asset to achieve this goal.

“The only way to remove the danger of a Palestinian terror state from the agenda is to apply Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlement in the entire Judea and Samaria,” he added.