Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday he had submitted a plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize strategic areas across the occupied West Bank, following new EU sanctions targeting Israeli settlers.
"I presented the Prime Minister with a plan to seize strategic areas in the West Bank in Areas A, B and C," he said on X.
The move came shortly after EU foreign ministers agreed on a new round of sanctions targeting Israeli occupiers and organizations accused of supporting illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
"European hypocrisy knows no bounds," Smotrich said.
"No one will force the State of Israel to pursue a policy of national suicide," he claimed.
The Israeli minister called for "strengthening the settlements" and "deepening control" over what he called "Israel's land."
"The West Bank is Israel's security belt, and it is time to make it clear to the world that anyone who tries to weaken our control over it will face dire consequences."
The Oslo Accords, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, were intended to serve as a framework for Palestinian self-rule and a future Palestinian state.
Under the Oslo II agreement signed in 1995, the occupied West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C, with Area C remaining under full Israeli control and comprising around 60% of the territory.
Rejecting the European sanctions against occupiers, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed that settlement activity represents a "historical and moral right" for the Jewish people.
Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank has witnessed a significant surge since the formation of Netanyahu's government at the end of 2022, according to data from the Israeli left-wing organization Peace Now.
About 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in the occupied West Bank, including around 250,000 in East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian estimates. The settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli forces and occupiers have intensified attacks across the West Bank, killing more than 1,000 Palestinians, wounding about 12,000 others and arresting nearly 22,000 people, according to Palestinian figures.
