Israel

Smotrich Calls for War in West Bank and Annexation up to Gaza's Yellow Line and the Litani

Published

Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of the Israeli community of Psagot on a hilltop in the Binyamin hills of Samaria, pale stone houses and radio masts above dry terraced slopes and olive trees; archival July 2004 context, not the September 2026 interview, rendered in warm ochre and slate-blue pastel strokes.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, said Israel needs to "go to war in Judea and Samaria" and "do what we did in Gaza," clearing all terrorist infrastructure, weapons and tunnels, in a podcast interview published September 27. He called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority, which he called "a terror authority," and said he would personally have liked Israel to annex at least up to the Yellow Line in Gaza and up to the Litani River in Lebanon. Smotrich dismissed Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir's warnings about West Bank volatility, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made many mistakes before October 7, and called Ofer Winter's election bid "an irresponsible move."

Sources

Secondary sources:1

Related stories

  1. State Duma Voting Opens Across Russia for Three-Day Election
  2. High Court Bars Parties From Receiving Identifiable Election-Day Turnout Data
  3. USPS Stops Work on Mail-Ballot System After Supreme Court Ruling
  4. Otzma Yehudit Files Bid to Bar Democrats From Israel Election
  5. Second Federal Judge Blocks U.S. Postal Service Mail-Ballot Rule

Something went wrong

We couldn't complete that action. Check your connection and try again.