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“Where there is no settlement, there is no security,” Smotrich said. “We are not returning to the reality before the Oct. 7th massacre.”
By United with Israel Staff
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that plans have been completed for three new Israeli communities in the northern Gaza Strip, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve their immediate construction as part of a broader strategy to secure Israel’s southern border.
Speaking during a visit to Sderot, Smotrich said the Settlement Administration operating under his authority in the Defense Ministry had finished the necessary planning work.
“The Settlement Administration under my leadership in the Defense Ministry has completed the groundwork, and we are ready to establish three settlements immediately as soon as we receive the green light from the prime minister,” Smotrich said, according to Hebrew media.
“I call on the prime minister—give the approval, let us complete the mission and restore real security to the residents of the south.”
Smotrich said the proposed communities would be built in the northern Gaza Strip and argued that Israeli civilian presence is essential to preventing future attacks.
“Where there is no settlement, there is no security,” he said. “We are not returning to the reality before the Oct. 7th massacre.”
The Religious Zionist Party leader also called for Israel to complete its military campaign in Gaza, saying the IDF—which he said already controls nearly 70 percent of the territory—should seize the remaining areas, eliminate Hamas, and establish a belt of Israeli communities to protect Sderot and other border towns.
The proposal also diverges from the U.S.-backed vision for Gaza’s postwar future. Washington has promoted a framework centered on Hamas’ disarmament, an international stabilization force, reconstruction under a Palestinian technocratic administration, and no return of Israeli civilian settlements.
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Netanyahu’s directive for the IDF to seize roughly 70 percent of Gaza was not part of the American plan.
“We have a plan. It doesn’t call for that,” Rubio told lawmakers.
Israel dismantled all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip during the 2005 disengagement, evacuating more than 9,000 Israeli residents under then-prime minister Ariel Sharon.
During Monday’s visit, Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi thanked Smotrich for his support of Gaza-border communities and argued that the threat from Gaza must be pushed farther away to ensure residents can live in lasting security.
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