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Smotrich says plans drawn up to establish 3 Israeli settlements in Gaza
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 Eshel, father of slain surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, interrupted Smotrich from the audience during a speech he was delivering at Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha, which lies close to the border with the Gaza Strip and was overrun by Hamas gunmen during their assault. Four kibbutz members were killed.
Smotrich on Sunday had taken credit for the return of all the hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, despite having voted repeatedly throughout the two-year war in the Strip against deals that would have seen them released earlier. His remarks provoked outrage from former hostages and the bereaved families of hostages.
Smotrich was at the kibbutz to review rehabilitation plans, which include constructing some 1,000 housing units in border communities.
As the minister delivered his speech, Eshel stood up and began heckling him.
“Get off the stage — you aren’t fit to be here,” he shouted. “You should resign. Why haven’t you done that?”
“Why didn’t you resign on the morning of the black Sabbath?” he said, referring to October 7, 2023, which was a Saturday.
“Many hostages came back in coffins because you voted against” deals for a ceasefire in exchange for captives, Eshel charged.
Eshel accused Smotrich of attending the event as a public relations stunt, an apparent reference to the coming national elections, in which polls show Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party hovering around the threshold for entry into the Knesset.
Responding to Eshel, Smotrich declared that he had come “to say thank you also to those who are rightfully angry at me. People who went through the worst, and on my watch, and my responsibility. I understand your anger. I am here in order to make sure that Israel succeeds.”
Liora Ben Tzur, a resident of the kibbutz whose mother, Marcelle Taljah, was murdered on October 7, took to the stage to try to calm the tensions.
“I recognize your pain; we are here to talk in the name of the entire people,” she said. “We are here in order to create unity between us.”
“He doesn’t speak in the name of the people,” Eshel shot back at her.
Ahead of the event, a few dozen people protested outside the kibbutz against Smotrich’s participation, Ynet reported.
איל אשל קורא לשר האוצר בצלאל סמוטריץ’ לרדת מהבמה באירוע הנחת אבן פינה בקיבוץ עין השלושה: “חטופים חזרו בארונות בגללך, אתה לא ראוי להיות כאן” pic.twitter.com/hsNvc8yPIG
— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) June 29, 2026
Smotrich was forced to cancel a planned visit to Kibbutz Be’eri due to anger from its residents over his remarks about saving hostages, the Walla news outlet reported.
Rabbi Elhanan Danino, father of slain captive Ori Danino, noted in an interview that Smotrich opposed ceasefire deals.
“People in the defense establishment explicitly told me that in the cabinet, Smotrich is the one who every day bangs on the prime minister’s table to prevent a deal and continue the war,” Danino told the Kan public broadcaster. “I pray that his day of reckoning comes swiftly.”
Of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas and other terror groups during the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, 166 were released alive, and 85 were returned to Israel deceased.
Among the dead returned to Israel in the two years following October 7, 44 were killed before their bodies were abducted, and 41 were abducted alive and killed in captivity.
In many cases, they were murdered by their captors. In other cases, the military confirmed that its own actions, including airstrikes, led to the deaths of hostages.
Smotrich consistently opposed, or gave only conditional support to, various proposals for hostage deals throughout the two-year war in Gaza, arguing that continuing the military offensive and overthrowing Hamas was more important.
He also threatened, on multiple occasions, to pull his far-right Religious Zionism party from the government if a deal was signed that he disapproved of.
