Israeli minister Smotrich calls for full 'annexation' of West Bank, Gaza
Israel's far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the full annexation of the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Speaking at a recent summit in occupied al-Quds, hosted by Israel for an American evangelical audience, Smotrich asserted that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.
Smotrich, who has a history of making outrage-inciting comments and provoking Palestinians, repeated his proposal of expanding Israeli settlements within the West Bank and other occupied territories.
He also urged for the return of Israeli settlements to Gaza, undoing the 2005 withdrawal.
Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has launched a year-long genocidal camp in Gaza, earlier said that his regime would maintain control of the territory for an indefinite period.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Smotrich also called for Israeli control over the besieged Palestinian region to be solidified by establishing a permanent civilian and military presence.
Moreover, he added that Palestinians should only retain limited local self-rule “devoid of national characteristics.”
The minister emphasized that those who insisted on a Palestinian state would be forced to leave and face expulsion.
“Those who do not want or are unable to put aside their national ambitions will receive assistance from us to emigrate to one of the many Arab countries where the Arabs can realize their national ambitions, or to any other destination in the world,” he said.
Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir have made similar calls in the past.
The latest remarks come as Netanyahu is executing a plan to starve out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes in northern Gaza.
Under the "generals' plan", civilians who remain in northern Gaza are classified as combatants, allowing Israeli troops to kill them. They are denied access to food, water, medicine, and fuel.
The plan gave Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, before declaring it a closed military zone.
The Israeli genocidal war in Gaza continues to kill more civilians and leave behind a trail of destruction across the besieged strip.
There are 2.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. More than 43,000 of those have been killed by Israeli attacks and about 2 million displaced since October last year when the regime forces launched their genocidal war against Palestinians.
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