This edition includes senior government ministers calling for Israel to reestablish illegal settlements in Gaza and to “encourage voluntary immigration” of Palestinians from the territory; for the abduction and imprisonment of Lebanese women and children and the destruction of homes in southern Lebanon; declaring “all of Lebanon must burn” and “a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep” for every Israeli mother who weeps; the head of Israel’s occupying army in the West Bank expressing his “love” and appreciation to violent settlers who have established so-called farming “outposts” that violate Israeli as well as international law; and the speaker of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) declaring “there’s no other way” except for Israel to expel all Palestinians and formally annex the occupied Palestinian territories.
- July 19, 2026: Numerous senior government ministers and lawmakers, amounting to nearly half of Israel’s government, took part in a far-right march calling for Israel to reestablish settlements in Gaza, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Economy Minister Nir Barkat and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi from Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Ben-Gvir told the marchers: “There will be Jewish settlement in all of Gaza.” and called for Israel to “encourage voluntary immigration” of Palestinians. Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem, thanked extremist settler leader Daniella Weiss for her efforts to reestablish Gaza settlements “in coordination with the Israeli government,” adding: “We’re preparing the ground to hold on to the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Weiss told the crowd: “People ask me, ‘What will happen to the Arabs in Gaza?’ There will be no more Arabs in Gaza — period.”
- July 15, 2026: Speaking at a meeting organized by a group of farming settlers, the head of Israel’s occupying army in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, declared that settler farming “outposts” built on occupied Palestinian land - which are hotbeds of settler terrorism against Palestinians and are illegal under Israeli law as well as international law - “greatly strengthen security” for Israel. He added:
- “I look each and every one of you straight in the eye. I love you, I appreciate you, and I appreciate what you do.”
- July 8, 2026: Finance Minister Smotrich, who is in charge of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the West Bank and a settler himself, said Israel will fully occupy all of Gaza and reestablish settlements there, declaring we “will return to the whole of Gaza” and that Israel should “erase” the Oslo Accords.
- June 24, 2026: During a televised interview, Nissim Vaturi, the deputy speaker of the Knesset from Netanyahu’s Likud party, called for all Palestinians to be expelled from Palestine/Israel and the formal annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories, stating:
- “Now we have to talk about where we evacuate Arabs and where we settle Jews… There’s no other way. They should all be expelled from here… Sovereignty and expulsion.”
- June 19, 2026: Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a televised interview:
- ”We have flattened the entire first line of villages in southern Lebanon, all the houses have been destroyed. The residents will never see them standing ever again.”
- June 19, 2026: National Security Minister Ben-Gvir tweeted:
- “For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!... Enough with the ping-pong. In the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint—you need to go berserk. To obliterate.”
- June 10, 2026: Ben-Gvir called for the Israeli military to kidnap and imprison Lebanese women and children to pressure Hezbollah, declaring:
- “We must think outside the box regarding Hezbollah… We should arrest their women and children and take them to prison; this is what hurts them the most.”
- June 4, 2026: Finance Minister Smotrich, who has overseen an unprecedented expansion of settlements in the West Bank, including approving entirely new settlements for the first time in decades and legalizing (under Israeli law) so-called “outposts,” celebrated the passage of a law granting tax breaks to dozens of settlements by declaring it “another step toward the goal of one million residents [settlers] in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].” There are currently more than half a million Israeli settlers living on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank in flagrant violation of international law and numerous U.N. resolutions, in addition to more than 230,000 in occupied East Jerusalem.