Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that plans to establish three Israeli settlements in the northern Gaza Strip had been completed and were awaiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s green light before implementation could begin.
Smotrich called on Netanyahu to allow for the advancement and said that implementation could “begin immediately” afterwards.
He made the announcement at the end of a meeting held on Monday evening in the South with Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi.
The far-right minister is the head of the Settlements Administration, a Defense Ministry body established in 2023 that manages matters relating to settlements and advances construction and housing in the West Bank.
“The Settlement Administration, under my leadership in the Defense Ministry, has completed its staff work, and we are ready to establish three settlements immediately once we receive the green light from the prime minister,” Smotrich said.
“I call on the prime minister: give the approval – let us complete the mission, and restore real security to the residents of the South.”
Smotrich has been sanctioned by several European allies of Israel
Smotrich also stated that the IDF currently holds nearly 70% of the Gaza Strip’s territory.
“We need to complete the conquest of the remaining area, defeat Hamas, and establish a belt of Jewish settlements that will serve as a security buffer for Sderot and the Gaza border communities,” he said.
“Where there is no settlement, there is no security. We are not going back to the reality of before October 7,” Smotrich added.
The finance minister’s statements calling for West Bank and Gaza annexation often draw sharp international condemnation, as well as criticism for harming Israel’s global standing.
Smotrich’s Monday trip to southern Israel was part of a wider visit to the new neighborhoods being constructed in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the Gaza border communities devastated by Hamas during the October 7 massacre.
Smotrich had later canceled his visit to Kibbutz Be’eri, following strong opposition by relatives of the 32 Gaza hostages from the kibbutz, who protested the minister’s comment over his role in bringing back the hostages.
During an interview for Nadav Perry’s podcast on Sunday, Smotrich claimed that he played a critical role in the Israel-Hamas War, stating, “I think it is thanks to me that all the hostages are here.”
“I think that, without me, the war in Gaza would have ended even before Rafah,” Smotrich also said.
“Had I not drawn a red line at that moment and told Netanyahu, ‘there is no such thing,’ we would still be negotiating with Hamas over one more hostage, and then another,” he added.
Former Gaza hostage Or Levy slammed Smotrich for his comments in a post to Instagram, saying that, if it had been left to him, “we wouldn’t have returned to this day.”
“For you, we are nothing more than collateral damage of your trolling,” Levy said. “I said it, and I will shut it: Bezalel Smotrich, you are a shame of a minister, a shame of a citizen, and a shame of a person.”
Miriam Sela-Eitam contributed to this report.