Far-Right Israeli Minister Threatens To Turn West Bank ‘Into Ruins’ Amid More Violence

Israel’s far-right finance minister threatened on Thursday to turn Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank “into ruins like the Gaza Strip” as soldiers and settlers escalate their raids against Palestinian civilians.

In a video he recorded of himself outside, Bezalel Smotrich addressed his “neighbors beyond the fence” in the West Bank’s Palestinian areas of Tulkarem, Nur al-Shams, Shuweika and Qalqilya.

“We will turn you into ruins like in the Gaza Strip if the terror you are inflicting on the settlements continues. Terrorism against the citizens of Israel must stop,” the extremist minister and settler said in Hebrew, referring to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza that in eight months has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and displaced most of Gaza’s population.

Smotrich’s comments come amid escalating violence in the occupied West Bank. Most of the attacks are from the Israeli military and from settlers who have carried out raids against Palestinian nearly every day since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people and captured about 240 others, half of whom are still being held by Hamas.

Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to settler violence and forced evictions for years. But since Oct. 7, more than 500 Palestinians ― including at least 130 children ― in the occupied territory have been killed, and nearly 5,000 have been injured by settlers and the IDF, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. That death toll is as of May 26, due to casualty figures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem not being updated as regularly as in Gaza.

Though Smotrich’s threat is concerning, it is also unsurprising for someone who has historically been