Far-right Israeli minister calls for Gaza-like military operation in occupied West Bank

The far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry, said on Wednesday that Palestinian resistance groups in the occupied West Bank “must be fought like in Gaza”.

Smotrich's comments were reported by the Times of Israel and follow sporadic gunfire from the West Bank village of Tulkarm into the Israeli town of Bat Hefer in the central Sharon region.

It was unclear who fired into Bat Hefer, and reports by Israeli politicians that it was Palestinians could not be independently verified. 

“We must not allow them to do in the Sharon what they did on 7 October near the Gaza border,” Smotrich said.

“Terror needs to be uprooted anywhere, even if it means Tulkarm will look like Gaza looks today,” he added. 

Smotrich added that a future Palestinian state would pose “an existential threat to the State of Israel”.