Smotrich calls to restore Jewish presence in Gaza

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday called for the country to “storm Gaza” and rebuild Jewish communities there, warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to shy away from the move, Channel 12 reported.

Speaking at a ceremony inaugurating the new community of Yatziv in Gush Etzion, in Judea, Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry overseeing civilian affairs in Judea and Samaria, said, “It’s either us or them—full Israeli control, the destruction of Hamas and permanent Israeli settlement.”

He attacked U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for Gaza, calling it “bad for the State of Israel” and urging its cancellation.

The Religious Zionism Party leader likened Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan to Hamas late leader Yahya Sinwar and said, “Qatar is Hamas—there’s no difference.”

Smotrich said that the joint command center established by the United States military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat should be dismantled, and representatives of countries “hostile to Israel” and that “undermine its security,” like Egypt and the United Kingdom, should be expelled.

He also stated that it is time “to issue Hamas a short ultimatum for disarmament and true exile, and once it expires—to storm Gaza with all our might, destroy Hamas militarily and civilly, open the Rafah crossing with or without Egyptian consent, and allow Gaza residents to leave and seek their future elsewhere, where they won’t endanger the future of our children.”

Smotrich ended his remarks with a pointed message to Netanyahu:

“This was the simple, self-evident position of the overwhelming majority of Israelis in the days after the massacre that began this war, and I’m sure it still reflects the majority view of Israelis who have awakened from the illusion and realized that the only way to guarantee our security, with God’s help, is to take responsibility—not run from it,” the minister said.

“God willing, we will soon meet at a similar ceremony in the Gaza Strip. I very much hope it will be led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—and that we will not need political upheavals along the way,” he continued.

Smotrich was among Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition partners on Saturday who rallied behind the premier after he voiced opposition to the composition of Trump’s Gaza Executive Board.

“The countries that resuscitated Hamas cannot be the ones that replace it. Those who support it and continue to host it even now will not be given a foothold in Gaza. Period,” tweeted Smotrich, referring to the inclusion of Qatar and Turkey.

“Our brave fighters did not risk their lives in a tremendous national mobilization just to swap one problem for another,” Smotrich wrote. “The prime minister must insist on this, even if it requires managing a dispute with our great friend and with President Trump’s envoys.”

The Gaza Executive Board

The Gaza Executive Board, led by the United States and composed of officials from countries such as Turkey, Qatar and Egypt, “runs contrary to [Israel’s] policy,” Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday evening.

The announcement of its establishment “was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” Jerusalem’s statement continued.

It added that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was instructed to discuss the matter with his American counterpart, Marco Rubio, who was named on Friday as a founding member of the Executive Board.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted that he “supports the prime minister regarding his important statement.”

Trump said in February that the United States should “take over” Gaza and relocate its 2 million residents before clearing it and rebuilding.

Ben-Gvir on Saturday called on Netanyahu to instruct the Israel Defense Forces to “prepare to return to the war in the Strip with overwhelming force, in order to achieve the war’s central goal: Hamas’s destruction.”

Amichai Chikli, Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism minister and a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, said Israel “cannot and will not accept” Turkish influence on its southern border, tweeting: “Erdoğan’s Turkey is Hamas.”

Erdoğan has turned his country “into a regional aggressor responsible for unprecedented massacres and brutal repression, from the Kurds in Afrin, Aleppo and Deir Hafir, to Alawites and Druze,” wrote Chikli.

The Gaza Executive Board includes U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi and Egyptian General Intelligence Service Director Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad.

Fidan in July 2024 expressed “deep sorrow” after top Hamas terrorist Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.

“I learned with deep sorrow that my dear brother Ismail Haniyeh was martyred in Iran,” Fidan wrote in a July 31, 2024, post on X. Fidan said Haniyeh “never lost his faith in peace,” and offered condolences.

Calling Haniyeh a “symbol” of Palestinian “resistance,” Fidan said his “noble memory will live on in the just cause of the Palestinian people.”

The Gaza Executive Board is to assist the high representative for Gaza, former U.N. diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, as well as the new National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, another committee under the Board of Peace that is composed of 15 Palestinians and is led by former Palestinian Authority Deputy Transportation Minister Ali Sha’ath.

©JNS