Smotrich says West Bank should be flattened like Gaza was
Israel's finance minister cites a tunnel found in Qalqilya as he calls for Gaza-style demolitions across the West Bank.
Published
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the West Bank should be treated the way Gaza was, arguing that a tunnel discovered in Qalqilya shows the area harbors terrorist infrastructure, weapons and fighters. He said the neighborhood where the tunnel was found needs to be flattened.
The statement lands three weeks before Israel's Knesset election, set for October 27. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that enemies may try attacks before the vote.
Iran's military chief, Abdollahi, warned on Monday of a 'devastating response' to any threat, and said the United States and Israel were wrong to expect that Nasrallah's death would collapse the 'resistance' network.
Smotrich's call pushes the conflict onto a new front rather than the contained Gaza, Lebanon and Iran axis that markets have been pricing. It comes as diplomatic efforts, including a $2.45 billion Gaza recovery plan and talks with the UAE, had been signaling a path toward de-escalation. Opening a West Bank operation risks broader Arab and European backlash and complicates the Gulf normalization track just as it appeared to be advancing, which argues for a higher geopolitical risk premium in crude. For USO, the fund tracking crude, that is modestly bullish on the risk-premium side, though it does not touch the physical supply disruptions that have been the more direct driver of oil moves.