Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has publicly called for the military to "complete the conquest" of the Gaza Strip and to establish Jewish settlements there, statements that revive a long-abandoned aim and that Palestinians and rights advocates condemned.
What he said
Speaking in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, near the Gaza border, Smotrich said the armed forces should finish taking the territory, defeat Hamas, and create "a belt of Jewish settlements" to serve as a security buffer for nearby Israeli communities, Al Jazeera reported. "Where there are no settlements, there is no security," he said, adding that Israel was "not returning to the reality that existed before October 7." Smotrich said the settlement body he oversees had completed planning for three settlements, to be built once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives the go-ahead, according to The Times of Israel.
Position, not yet policy
The remarks reflect Smotrich's own political program rather than declared government policy. A leader of the Religious Zionism party and one of the most powerful figures on the Israeli right, he serves as finance minister and also holds responsibilities over settlement matters in the occupied West Bank. By his own account, his settlement plans for Gaza await the prime minister's approval, which has not been given. Israel withdrew all of its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, and any return would mark a sharp reversal.
The backdrop
Smotrich spoke against the backdrop of the war that has raged since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed in Israel. The Israeli offensive that followed has devastated Gaza and produced what United Nations agencies describe as a dire humanitarian crisis, with widespread shortages of food, medicine and shelter.
Condemnation and the legal question
Palestinian officials rejected the call, casting it as a bid to entrench occupation and displace residents. It also collides with the prevailing reading of international law: in a 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice found that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory breach international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention's bar on an occupying power moving its civilian population into occupied land, as reported by NBC News. Israel disputes that interpretation.
Smotrich's vision faces steep obstacles beyond the legal debate. The United States has opposed the annexation of Gaza and the building of settlements there, and in 2025 five Western governments — Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway — imposed sanctions on Smotrich and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, over their settlement policies. Whether his proposals advance will depend on decisions that, for now, rest with the prime minister.
