Smotrich’s settlement plans come as the international spotlight on Israel intensifies, with growing calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war amid mass concerns over the ongoing malnutrition crisis in Gaza and backlash over Netanyahu’s plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip.

A far-right Israeli minister has backed controversial settlement plans in order to ensure there is “nothing left to recognise” of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s far-right finance minister announced approval Thursday of contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a Palestinian state by effectively cutting the territory into two parts.