Smotrich confirms planning more Israeli construction in occupied West Bank
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel will work to “strengthen our hold on all parts of our country”.
“We will not allow the Arabs to sever Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, nor will we allow them to establish a Palestinian state that would endanger our existence here,” he wrote in a post on X.
It came in reaction to a report in Israeli media that said he is “preparing the ground” for a second presidency of Donald Trump in the US, pushing for annexation of more Palestinian land and more Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank.
Smotrich is working to create territorial continuity between Jerusalem and illegal Jewish settlements in Gush Etzion in the occupied West Bank to bolster Israeli control.
Knesset considering bill allowing Israelis entry to Gaza: Reports
Israeli media is reporting that the Knesset has presented formally for consideration a bill to again allow Israeli citizens entry into the Gaza Strip as government coalition lawmakers prepare to legalise the construction of more Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
The legislation, put forward by Likud MP Avichay Boaron, states that “in the summer of 2005, the Israeli government decided to expel all Jewish residents from Gaza and northern West Bank and to withdraw militarily from the area” which led to the so-called “disengagement law”.
“The ban on entry recalls dark periods in the history of the Jewish people,” it said, in reference to the Holocaust.
Now, the bill said, Israelis should once again enjoy “full freedom of presence and movement” in Gaza, and the war must end “with total loss of Islamist control over the land”.
This comes as a group of coalition lawmakers plans a tour of the Gaza border in order to promote the resettlement of Jews in Gaza.
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