The American New York Times reported, citing an audio recording of the Minister of Finance in the occupation government, Bezalel Smotrich, that he informed settlers of efforts to change governance in the West Bank without accusing his government of officially annexing it.

The American newspaper added that Smotrich said that the goal is to prevent the West Bank from becoming part of a Palestinian state.

Earlier, the leader of the opposition to the Israeli occupation, Yair Lapid, said, "Benjamin Netanyahu's government includes completely crazy people who are incapable of ruling anything."

Lapid added, in statements reported by the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday, that "the extremism of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Smotrich is dragging Tel Aviv into the realms of madness and disintegrating the government from within."

He pointed out that US President Joe Biden is helping Tel Aviv in an unprecedented way, while he considered that Netanyahu's accusation of Biden of delaying the arms shipment is "political madness to please the right."