Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Monday that he intends to make the occupied West Bank an integral part of Israel.

During a meeting of his far-right Religious Zionism party, Smotrich said: I intend to “make Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) an integral part of Israel,” according to the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz.

He added: "We will establish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria on the ground first and then through legislation. I intend to legitimize the emerging settlements (illegal settlement outposts)."

Smotrich, one of the most prominent supporters of settlement in the West Bank and its annexation to Israel, added: “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

On Sunday, Smotrich confirmed the authenticity of the content of an audio recording published by the American newspaper “The New York Times” on Friday about his efforts to annex the occupied West Bank to Israel.

Smotrich said, via the “X” platform: “The Israeli people, in their majority (...) are well aware that the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank would endanger Israel’s existence, and they do not oppose what I am doing.”

During a meeting with settlers, on June 9, Smotrich said, according to the recording, that “Netanyahu’s government is engaged in a secret plan to change the way it governs the West Bank, to strengthen Israel’s control over it irreversibly, without accusing it of officially annexing it.”

The Palestinians say that Israel is exploiting its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, since last October 7, to intensify settlement activities and annexation measures in the occupied West Bank, and calls on the international community to stop Tel Aviv’s plans.

The United Nations considers settlement in the occupied territories illegal, warns that it undermines the chances of addressing the conflict according to the principle of a two-state solution (Palestinian and Israeli), and has been calling for decades to stop it, to no avail.

According to Israeli estimates, more than 720,000 Israeli settlers reside in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.