Smotrich vows Jewish settlements will be built in Gaza and says West Bank settlement drive will continue

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed early Wednesday that Jewish settlements would be established in Gaza and said his party would prevent opponents from reversing the settlement expansion undertaken in the West Bank under the outgoing government.

Speaking to supporters at his Religious Zionism party’s election headquarters in Jerusalem after the release of exit polls, Smotrich said he had seen Arab Israelis celebrating the projected results.

“We will not let them celebrate,” he said. “They are celebrating because they think they’ll succeed in reversing our settlement revolution in Judea and Samaria. They won’t succeed.”

Smotrich, using the biblical name for the West Bank, has made settlement expansion a central part of his political platform. During the campaign, he repeatedly presented the growth of Israeli communities there as one of his principal achievements in government.

He then extended the pledge to Gaza.

“They are celebrating because they think they will succeed in preventing the establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza,” Smotrich said. “They will not succeed. Jewish settlements will be established in Gaza.”

Smotrich has previously called for reestablishing Israeli settlements in Gaza and encouraging Palestinians to leave the territory, while seeking a larger role over settlement and territorial policy in the next government.

His remarks came as initial exit polls showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc losing its existing parliamentary majority, although neither the pro-Netanyahu camp nor its principal opponents had a clear path to the 61 seats needed to govern.