Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that Israel has prepared plans to establish three settlements in the Gaza Strip, and all that is needed to move ahead with the project is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval.

The Defense Ministry Settlement Administration, which Smotrich administers, “has completed the groundwork to establish three settlements in the north Gaza area,” he said in a statement.

Smotrich called on Netanyahu to “give the approval” in order to “complete the mission and restore true security for the residents of the south.”

His remarks came after he met with Alon Davidi, mayor of Sderot, during a tour of Gaza-border communities to review rehabilitation projects for areas devastated by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war.

Smotrich said that the Israel Defense Forces should seize more than the 70 percent of Gaza’s land that it currently controls and that, in his view, Jewish settlements in Gaza will act as a security belt for border communities in Israel.

“Where there is no settlement, there is no security,” he claimed.

Smotrich has pushed hard to expand Israeli settlements and has a history of publicly calling on the prime minister to annex and settle territories in the West Bank and Gaza.

Despite Smotrich’s proclamations, a return to settlement in Gaza is strongly opposed by the United States and remains highly unlikely in the foreseeable future.

In April, he called on Netanyahu to fully occupy and resettle the Gaza Strip, insisting that the end of the war against Hamas in Gaza must be accompanied by territorial expansion.

Last month, Netanyahu said he ordered the IDF to take control of 70% of Gaza – well beyond the portion of the enclave that Jerusalem was allowed to temporarily remain in as part of an October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The ceasefire halted the war triggered by the October 7 attack.

During Smotrich’s tour of the south, the father of an IDF soldier who was killed on October 7 heckled the far-right minister, accusing him of causing the deaths of hostages seized that day by opposing deals to end the war that would have seen them safely returned before they were eventually killed.

Eyal........

© The Times of Israel