1/8/2024–|Last updated: 1/8/202406:31 AM (Mecca time)
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel must control the Gaza Strip at all times, calling for Jewish settlement within the Strip.
During a television interview, the extremist minister said that Israel would not be able to permanently control Gaza without a civilian presence, so that terrorism would have no place to grow, he said.
He added, “Look why Jenin and Tulkarm have turned into capitals of terrorism. Because there is no Jewish settlement there.”
Smotrich has been making extremist statements, the last of which was a few days ago when he spoke with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir about the necessity of displacing the residents of Gaza, reoccupying the Strip, and building settlements there.
The extremist statements even affected the Palestinians in the West Bank, as Smotrich said late last November that “there are two million Nazis” in the West Bank.