TEL AVIV: Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Sunday for the annexation of parts of south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and for Israeli forces to "go to war" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
"I think we need to go to war in Judea and Samaria, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority that supports terror," he added, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority condemned Smotrich's call for war in the West Bank on Sunday.
"His statements are an explicit call for escalation, annexation and displacement, aimed at undermining the prospects of an independent Palestinian state," the Ramallah-based authority said in a statement.
At least 1,110 Palestinians, including a number of militants, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian official figures.
Israeli figures show at least 49 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period. More than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law, in the Palestinian territory among some three million Palestinians. — AFP
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