WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Senior Zionist settlers’ leaders have urged the regime’s cabinet to evacuate residents of Palestinian refugee camps and other areas that they decide are strongholds of armed groups, the Times of Israel has reported.
The settlers’ demands include large-scale demolitions and aggression similar to those carried out in Gaza, which they described as a strategy to combat armed Palestinian groups “exactly as we have done in the Gaza Strip.”
In a letter addressed to the Zionist regime’s cabinet, Yisrael Ganz, the head of the Yesha Council, along with 14 mayors of settlement authorities and regional councils, also proposed limiting Palestinian movement on major West Bank roads due to security concerns.
This appeal comes after Zionist war minister, Israel Katz, directed the regime’s military to increase defenses for West Bank settlements and main roads. Katz cited potential threats from “extremist Islamic terror agents,” suggesting that they could be inspired by the recent success of Syrians in overthrowing the Assad government.
In August, while serving as foreign minister, Katz advocated for the “temporary relocation” of Palestinians in the West Bank during a large-scale aggression in the northern part of the occupied territory.
The regime has faced allegations of forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza, with extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the ongoing refusal to allow most displaced residents to return to their homes. Far-right Israeli politicians, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, have similarly pushed for policies aimed at “encouraging” Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza.
Moreover, in their letter, settlers’ leaders claimed that increasing violence in the West Bank requires decisive and aggressive measures. “The population living in zones identified with terrorism, with a focus on ‘refugee’ camps and known terror complexes, should be moved,” they said. “After moving the population, the terrorism [sic] infrastructure should be dismantled exactly as we have done in the Gaza Strip, meaning: any incriminated building to be destroyed, every terrorist to be taken out. The form of battle, from the incursion to the ground operation, will exert effective pressure and extract a significant price from the terrorist [sic] organizations.”
The letter did not specify where displaced Palestinians would be relocated to or what measures would follow the proposed aggression. “This is the time to abandon a defensive posture and adopt an aggressive, effective, and lethal offensive in Judea and Samaria,” said the fanatical settlers, whose very presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal under international law.