In an interview with Ynet News published Sunday, Smotrich said Israel needs to “go to war in Judea and Samaria, "to do there what we did in Gaza, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, which is a terror authority”.
His remarks came in response to a question about how the Israeli regime should confront the growing “security tensions” in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli violence against Palestinians has steadily increased since the eruption of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
The call for expanded military action comes amid a sharp rise in settler attacks against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,330 settler-related attacks were recorded from January to late July, an average of six attacks a day and the highest rate in about two decades.
The attacks have taken various forms, including shootings, the besieging of Palestinian homes and other acts of communal violence that experts have described as “pogroms”.
Rights groups have also warned that the growing use of military-issued weapons and military uniforms by settlers is increasingly blurring the distinction between settlers and Israeli soldiers, with Israeli regime forces often supporting or protecting settler groups during attacks.
At the same time, the Israeli regime has tightened restrictions on Palestinians across the occupied territory, announcing a comprehensive military closure for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
The closure, which further restricts Palestinian movement across the West Bank, is scheduled to remain in place until October 3.
The restrictions have also coincided with heightened Israeli measures in occupied East Al-Quds, where hundreds of Israelis stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday under heavy police protection.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the illegal Israeli settlers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate and performed Talmudic rituals, as Israeli occupation forces tightened restrictions around the mosque and across al-Quds’s Old City.