Putri Anggraini
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ignited fresh concern after publicly urging a full-scale military campaign in the occupied West Bank, telling an interviewer that Israel should replicate the tactics it has used in Gaza. The remarks, published by Ynet News on Sunday, come roughly a month before Israel's general election and have been condemned by human rights lawyers as a declaration of intent to commit grave international crimes.
In the interview, Smotrich said Israel must "go to war" in the territory he referred to by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria. He argued that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank under the Oslo Accords, should be dismantled and described it as a "terror authority." He also claimed Israeli forces had already "cleared out" Palestinian refugee camps in the territory and said the military should be instructed that just as it dismantled Hamas in Gaza, there would be no "terror infrastructure" left in the West Bank — "no terrorists, no weapons, no tunnels."
The finance minister, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, has a long record of inflammatory and racist rhetoric directed at Palestinians. He and his cabinet colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir have been sanctioned by several Western governments over their roles in settlement expansion and incitement. His latest comments arrive during a period of heightened Israeli and settler violence across the occupied territories, alongside what analysts describe as increasing demonisation of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Suhad Bishara, legal director of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, warned that the statements cannot be dismissed as campaign bluster. "Smotrich is not only proposing a 'war' on Palestinians in the West Bank, he is already waging one," she told Al Jazeera. She pointed to the refugee camps he boasted of clearing, noting they have been destroyed and their residents forcibly displaced.
Bishara further argued that his call to "do there what we did in Gaza" — where Israel has conducted what she described as a genocidal campaign of mass killing, starvation and destruction — amounts to a public declaration of intent to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against Palestinians in the West Bank. Her assessment reflects a growing body of legal opinion that has applied the term genocide to Israel's military operations in Gaza, including a finding last September by a United Nations commission of inquiry panel.
Beyond the West Bank, Smotrich used the interview to push for the formal annexation of territory Israel controls in Gaza and southern Lebanon. He said he would "very much like to annex at least up to the Yellow Line in Gaza and up to the Litani River in Lebanon," framing such moves as a way to make Israel's enemies "pay a price" for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
The so-called Yellow Line refers to the boundary to which the Israeli military withdrew under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire. Israeli military maps indicate the line runs between roughly 1.5 and 6.5 kilometres inside Gaza from its eastern border with Israel, encompassing about 58 percent of the enclave. Since the ceasefire took effect, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,408 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, while at least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Much of the besieged territory has been reduced to rubble.
In Lebanon, Israel continues to occupy southern areas and has carried out ongoing shelling and demolitions, despite a US-brokered ceasefire reached in June. Smotrich's proposal to annex land up to the Litani River would formalise control over a swath of Lebanese territory that extends well beyond the current occupied zone.
Bishara characterised the combined annexation calls as a "declared plan to seize occupied land by force and make its theft permanent," adding that such actions are "absolutely prohibited under international law." The Fourth Geneva Convention bars an occupying power from annexing territory seized in war, and the International Court of Justice has previously ruled that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
The timing of Smotrich's remarks is significant. Israel heads to the polls in about a month, and election campaigns have historically seen far-right ministers adopt increasingly hardline positions to mobilise their base. However, analysts and human rights experts caution that Smotrich's language should not be treated as mere electoral posturing, given his position as finance minister with influence over settlement policy and military funding.
His comments also come amid mounting international scrutiny of Israel's conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories. Several Western nations have imposed sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and human rights organisations have documented systematic abuses in Israeli prisons, which have been described in recent testimony as including shackling, beatings and rape. The cumulative picture, critics say, is one of escalating state violence accompanied by official rhetoric that normalises it.
For Palestinians in the West Bank, the threat is immediate rather than rhetorical. Refugee camps have already been emptied, residents displaced and homes demolished. If Smotrich's vision were implemented, the West Bank could face a military campaign resembling the one that has devastated Gaza, potentially triggering further mass displacement and drawing renewed international legal action. Whether his words translate into policy may depend on the outcome of the coming election — and on whether his party retains enough power to shape Israel's next government.
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