by Canaan Lidor
If the captives, both living and dead, are not returned, Israel will expand the agricultural areas of the kibbutzim Be'eri and Nir Oz into the Gaza perimeter, said the Israeli finance minister.
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| Israeli Minister of Finance and Head of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich speaks at the annual Jerusalem Conference of the Besheva group on Feb. 24, 2025. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90. |
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that if Hamas fails to return all of the hostages it is holding by Saturday, Israel will permanently seize land in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at the Sovereignty Conference 2025 in Jerusalem, the Religious Zionism Party head said that if the hostages, both the living and the dead, are not returned by then, “Israel will expand the agricultural areas of the kibbutzim Be’eri and Nir Oz into the perimeter area of the Gaza Strip.”
Kibbutz agriculture, he continued, “will expand at the expense of Gaza—and this land will remain in our hands forever.”
This ultimatum was the most concrete action plan that came out of the conference, an annual event focused on making Judea, Samaria and Gaza inseparable parts of the State of Israel. This year’s conference was held at the Vert Hotel near Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, with some 200 people in attendance.
During his address, Smotrich also said that Israel would return to fighting in Gaza, but did not indicate when.
“We are preparing, gaining capabilities, and when we feel we are ready, we will open the gates of hell on Hamas again. It requires patience, but in the end we will bring about the desired outcome,” he said.
During a later Q&A with Channel 12 News journalist Amit Segal, Smotrich said that in a year from now, Gaza will be “held by us, with fewer Gazans and more Israelis moving there. If we take out 10,000 Gazans a day—within four months the Strip will be empty. That would be the best solution—for us and for them.”
The conference, which brought together prominent leaders and activists on the Israeli right, highlighted expectations for Israel’s government to change the status quo in Judea, Samaria and Gaza with support from the U.S. administration.
Smotrich is scheduled to visit the U.S. next week for talks with his American counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to a report by Ynet on Tuesday.
Several speakers expressed a sense of urgency to leverage what they described as a promising but fleeting geopolitical constellation.
Co-produced by the Yesha Council of Judea and Samaria communities, the event has served for over two decades as a platform to advocate making Judea, Samaria and Gaza, or areas therein, part of Israel. Advocates of this move have called for applying Israeli civilian law in those areas, which are currently administered by the Israeli army or the Palestinians.
About half a million Jews live in Judea and Samaria, alongside about 2 million Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority administers the major Palestinian population centers in the area. In Gaza, Hamas has been in power since 2007, having overthrown the P.A. Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, uprooting thousands of residents of Israeli communities established in Gush Katif since 1967.
The Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023 invasion and massacre, has given rise to hopes for a return by Jewish residents to the Gaza Strip.
The current phase of the ceasefire in Gaza is set to expire on March 1, though there is a possibility it may be extended.
Smotrich warned on Monday that a resumption of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza would “make more areas look like Jabaliya, and this will convince many Gazans to leave.”
According to an analysis of satellite imagery commissioned by Channel 12 and published earlier this month, 100% of Jabaliya’s 19,000 buildings were destroyed during the war. The overall figure for Gaza was 65%, according to the report.
Knesset Member Dan Illouz of the Likud Party argued at the conference that the Trump administration makes sovereignty a “duty to seize right now,” because it will provide “a diplomatic Iron Dome, defending sovereignty from the international community, until four years from now, Israeli sovereignty will become consensus and irreversible.”
Yesha Council CEO Omer Rahamim concurred, saying: “If we lose this opportunity, of a U.S. administration that’s to the right of the Israeli government, it will be a historic miss that we will regret for generations.”
The Yesha Council is an umbrella organization of local authorities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
Rahamim argued for articulating a plan for encouraging Palestinian emigration from Judea and Samaria. “It’s just like what President [Donald] Trump is envisioning in Gaza. If it works there, it will work here,” he said.
Trump has said that he is committed to relocating Gaza’s population. Currently, Israel and Hamas are observing a tense ceasefire. Under its terms, Israel has agreed to free close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including terrorists, in exchange for 25 live and eight deceased hostages.
Israel launched a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip after Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and murdered some 1,200 people, abducting another 251. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to dismantle Hamas and retrieve the hostages.
Smotrich said on Monday that his Religious Zionism Party will stay in the government if the current phase of the ceasefire with Hamsas in Gaza is extended in exchange for more hostages.
His party “opposes the bad deal with Hamas, which is bad and dangerous, but we decided to stay [in the government]. The deal “means new victims, new hostages,” Smotrich said, explaining that it would incentivize Hamas to abduct more Israelis.
”We decided not to topple the right-wing government,” said Smotrich.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the head of the Otzma Yehudit Party, pulled out of the government over the ceasefire deal.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a passionate advocate of Israel, sent the conference attendees a recorded video message.
“Israel has an absolute right to determine what happens in Judea and Samaria,” said Cruz. “This right is described in the Bible and it extends through modern times. As you meet today, have confidence that the American people stand with you. And with President Trump and our new Republican Congress, the American government stands with you as well,” he added.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term in office, many Israelis on the right prepared for an application of full sovereignty—dubbed annexation by some—in the Jordan Valley. It did not materialize, reportedly to facilitate the Abraham Accords. Led by the Trump administration, the accords established diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Nadia Matar, a prominent Israeli sovereignty activist who also spoke at the conference, advocated pursuing this in a principled fashion. Israel should insist on applying sovereignty in all of those areas and avoid using sovereignty as an instrument of its realpolitik, she said.
Matar had opposed the prospect of applying sovereignty only to the Jordan Valley in 2019, she noted.
“We need to apply sovereignty over the whole of the Land of Israel in accordance with the Bible and to not be afraid of saying what will happen with the Arabs,” she said. Whoever’s “linked to terrorism won’t stay here, would need to leave willingly or otherwise. The few who remain here, we’ll talk with them about residency,” she added.
Several speakers, including lawmaker Simcha Rothman from Smotrich’s party, attended last week’s CPAC Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.
Rothman, chair of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, said he was impressed by the broad support that Israel enjoyed in the United States, also among conservatives with an America First approach. He remarked on how CPAC demonstrated the commonalities shared by conservative movements internationally.
Canaan Lidor
Source: https://www.jns.org/smotrich-israel-to-seize-land-if-gaza-hostages-arent-returned/
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