Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday approved the expansion of Highway 465, located inside the West Bank, which will double the route's capacity and connect the east and west settlements of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.
"This is great news for all residents of Binyamin. The doubling of this important road will create a completely different level of safety, security, and quality of life," said Smotrich in a statement announcing the expansion of the highway.
"In the face of [Gadi] Eisenkot and Yair Golan who want to uproot settlements and establish a Palestinian State - we are deepening our roots, fortifying the settlement and strengthening our grip on the territories of our land," he added.
According to the announcement, the highway expansion will allow for the settlements of Neve Tzuf and Ateret to be connected to the route, while the newly founded settlement of Mes'ol will also have access to Highway 465.
The project was carried out by the Finance Ministry, in cooperation with the Defense Ministry, the Transport Ministry, and the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, with authorities saying the main objective would be to deepen the Israeli grip on the West Bank and strengthen settlements there.
Council head calls Highway 465 an 'historic achievement'
Israel Ganz, head of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, said that this new project will "significantly improve the quality of life of residents, strengthen the connection between East and West Binyamin, and constitute another step on the path to bringing hundreds of thousands of residents to the Binyamin region."
He claimed that the project was years in the making and was approved thanks to "the historic road revolution that has been advancing in recent years together with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Transportation Minister Miri Regev."
He also sent a message targeted towards "the corrupt Palestinian Authority that encourages terrorism, to Hamas University in Bir Zeit, and to the ghost town of Rawabi," saying that the project shows that the State of Israel continues to build, develop, and strengthen its grip on the region.
"We are putting an end to the distorted and delusional dream of a Palestinian state through the development of settlements and the promotion of transportation infrastructure," he added.