Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich believes Israel’s new plan to conquer Gaza City does not go far enough, a spokesperson for the finance minister said Friday after the far-right Religious Zionism chair voted against the move during the overnight cabinet session that approved it.
Smotrich, who opposes a ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas, also said in a separate interview that he is working to “erase the Palestinian state” by “correcting” Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank during the 2005 Disengagement.
The plan “may sound good, but it’s actually more of the same,” said the spokesperson, adding that Smotrich, who is also a minister within the Defense Ministry, believes the decision was “immoral, unethical and not Zionist.”
“This is not an operation to conquer the Strip, take full military control of the territory and push for a decisive outcome,” said the spokesperson, describing that plan of action as “the only way to ensure victory, lasting security and the return of the hostages.”
Rather, said the spokesman, the plan was “a specific and dangerous operation whose sole purpose is to return Hamas to the negotiating room — a goal that isn’t one of the war aims.”
Securing the release of the hostages is, in fact, one of the war aims, along with the dismantling of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
Illustrative: An IDF soldier jumps off a tank on the outskirts of Gaza City’s Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods, July 23, 2025. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
The spokesperson predicted that once again, Netanyahu will promise that Israel is going “all the way,” only to then, “at the moment of truth, withdraw from the field after dozens of heroes have died and without any real operational achievements.”
Offering more insight into Smotrich’s stance, the Israel Hayom newspaper and Kan public broadcaster reported that he had voted against Netanyahu’s proposal to take over Gaza City during Thursday night’s security cabinet meeting.
Citing unnamed sources, Israel Hayom reported that Smotrich went so far as to agree with his frequent antagonist, IDF chief Zamir, that the plan was not a good one and would not bring Israel closer to its stated war aims.
Smotrich was said to have told the security cabinet that if Netanyahu truly wants his plan to lead to “victory,” then the premier must “explicitly announce that he will no longer agree to a partial deal.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the IDF General Staff Forum on June 30, 2025. At left is IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. At right is Defense Minister Israel Katz. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)
“That way, Hamas will understand that it has two choices left: Surrendering in an agreement or destruction,” Smotrich reportedly said.
“As long as there’s no such announcement from the prime minister, it is as though the goal of this big step is to again reach a partial deal,” Smotrich was quoted as saying. “So the content of the decision does not match its title, and that is not something I can agree to.”
‘Erase the Palestinian state’
In an interview with his Religious Zionism party’s Ofek weekend newsletter, Smotrich also said he was working to reestablish the former Israeli settlements of Ganim and Kadim in the northern West Bank, both of which were evacuated and dismantled in 2005.
Smotrich, who made a similar comment during a tour of the nearby former settlement of Sa-Nur on Thursday, said he hopes to see this plan come to fruition “in the coming weeks,” to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal from Gaza and from four West Bank settlements.
“The people of Israel are correcting the sin of Gaza,” he said, referring to the push among settler activists to reestablish the Gush Katif settlement bloc, “and I hope we will also be able to fully correct the sin of northern Samaria.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, second left, and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, left, stand in a structure in the area of the former settlement of Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank, August 7, 2025. The two-word phrase, written in blue on the column on the photo’s right, reads ‘Death to Arabs.’ (Roei Hadi/Samaria Regional Council)
Earlier this year, Israel approved plans to rebuild the settlements of Sa-Nur and Homesh, which were dismantled along with Ganim and Kadim during the Disengagement.
Smotrich told his party’s newspaper that the plans for the West Bank are intended to “erase the Palestinian state,” and to prevent a repeat of the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
“A large part of what we are doing today in Judea and Samaria is the product of insights from October 7,” he said, adding that “an absolute majority” of Israelis know that the purpose of the West Bank settlements is to ensure that cities in central Israel do not meet a similar fate to that of Gaza border communities in the Hamas onslaught.
