Israeli minister calls for West Bank war, annexation of Lebanon, Gaza areas

Israeli minister calls for West Bank war, annexation of Lebanon, Gaza areas

Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Sunday for the annexation of parts of south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and for Israeli forces to “go to war” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. “I would like us to annex at least as far as the yellow line in Gaza and as far as the Litani River in Lebanon… because if a war ends along the same lines where it began, what will deter the enemy from going to war again?” Smotrich said in a podcast for Israeli news site Ynet. The “yellow line” demarcates the area of Gaza already under Israeli military control after the recent conflict triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023. “I think we need to go to war in Judea and Samaria, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority that supports terror,” he added, using the biblical term for the West Bank. Smotrich is the leader of a far-right party that advocates the annexation of the entire West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Various Israeli political leaders, both in the ruling right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in the opposition, have come out against the establishment of a Palestinian state. The country is heading for elections on Oct 27, with Netanyahu locked in a tight contest as he seeks to stay in power. The Palestinian Authority condemned Smotrich’s call for war in the West Bank on Sunday. “His statements are an explicit call for escalation, annexation and displacement, aimed at undermining the prospects of an independent Palestinian state,” the Ramallah-based authority said in a statement. The West Bank has already seen a surge in violence since the outbreak of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. At least 1,110 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian official figures. Israeli figures show at least 49 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period. Settler attacks against Palestinians have soared in recent months, often with little or no legal consequence. Netanyahu has dismissed settlers’ violence against Palestinians, saying it is perpetrated by a “handful of rioters”. More than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law, in the Palestinian territory among some three million Palestinians.