JERUSALEM

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday he is working to grant 500,000 illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank “the same rights of every citizens in Israel.”

“I will continue to work with all my strength to allow the half million settlers who are on the front line and under fire to enjoy the same rights of every citizen in Israel and to establish facts on the ground that will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich posted on X.

“My life's mission is to build the Land of Israel and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the State of Israel,” he claimed.

“It's not political. It is national and existential,” added the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party.

Smotrich is responsible for settlement affairs in the occupied West Bank.

The West Bank is home to around half a million illegal Israeli settlers, in addition to more than 230,000 settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

Last July, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, calling it an “existential threat” to Israel.

Tensions have intensified throughout the occupied West Bank as Israel persisted in its offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 41,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since last Oct. 7.

At least 692 individuals have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a significant ruling by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio