On Friday night, after more than ten hours of meetings, he voted against Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to expand ground operations in the Gaza Strip. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is not happy with his government's plan to seize the remaining 25 percent of Gaza that Israel does not yet control. The leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party believes it is not enough, a spokesman for him said on Friday. Indeed, the decision was"immoral and un-Zionist."

Together with his National Security colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister continues to push the Netanyahu government further to the right."This is not an operation to conquer the Strip, take full military control of the territory and push for a decisive result," the spokesman stated, which is"the only way to guarantee victory, lasting security and the return of the hostages." Rather, what the Netanyahu government has announced is"a dangerous operation whose sole purpose is to bring Hamas back to the negotiating table, an objective that is not part of the aims of the war." That is, to free the hostages and definitively defeat Hamas. Once again, the leader of the far-right Zionist movement believes, the prime minister will promise that Israel will go"all the way" and then "withdraw at the moment of truth after dozens of heroes have died and without any real operational results." Citing anonymous sources, the daily newspaper Israel Hayom even went so far as to report that Smotrich agreed with his rival Eyal Zamir, head of the Israel Defense Forces, that the plan was no good and would not bring Israel any closer to its declared war goals.

Smotrich, who opposes a ceasefire agreement with Hamas and the hostage-taking, also said in an interview that he is working to “erase the Palestinian state” by “correcting” Israel’s withdrawal from the northern West Bank. How? By working to rebuild the former Israeli settlements of Ganim and Kadim, both evacuated and dismantled in 2005. The minister also discussed this on Thursday during a visit to the nearby former settlement of Sa-Nur, saying he hoped to see the plan materialize “in the coming weeks,” coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements. “The people of Israel are correcting the sin of Gaza,” he said, referring to the push by settler activists to re-establish the settlement blockade of Gush Katif, “and I hope that we will also be able to completely correct the sin of Northern Samaria.”

Smotrich's plans for the West Bank are aimed at"erasing the Palestinian state" and preventing a repeat of Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack, which sparked the war in Gaza."Much of what we are doing today in Judea and Samaria is the product of October 7 insights," he explained, adding that"an absolute majority" of Israelis understand that the purpose of West Bank settlements is to ensure that cities in central Israel do not suffer a similar fate to Gaza's border communities in the Hamas assault.