Senior Israeli minister pushes for Israel to govern Gaza ‘for a very long time,’ says Israeli control can’t be limited to security.
By World Israel News Staff
Israel will unleash the “gates of hell” against the Hamas terror organization after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20th, a senior Israeli government minister said Wednesday.
Speaking during a question and answer session on Facebook Live, Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich said Israel would dramatically ratchet up pressure on Hamas and significantly reduce the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip, if an when Trump gives Jerusalem backing to do so.
Smotrich predicted that Trump, who has repeatedly warned Hamas that the terror group will have “hell to pay” if it fails to release the remaining hostages by inauguration day this month, will give his blessing to Israeli measures cutting the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip down to a bare minimum.
Once Trump takes office, Israel is prepared to “open the gates of hell on Hamas,” Smotrich said.
The minister added that Israel is preparing to take long-term control over the Gaza Strip.
“We’re readying for a new approach to conquering the Gaza Strip, of holding onto it, of dividing it into regional brigades,” Smotrich continued, saying Israel should remain in Gaza “for a very long time.”
“The military pressure will be stronger, not entering and exiting but capturing territory.”
Smotrich, a long-time backer of the settlement movement, has advocated since October 7th for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip, and steps to encourage the voluntary emigration of the coastal enclave’s Arab population.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), who also advocates the resettlement of the Gaza Strip and policies designed to encourage mass Arab emigration from the area, claimed last year that despite his statements against such plans earlier in the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quietly warming to the proposals.
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