Smotrich, himself a settler who also serves in a supervisory role at the Defense Ministry overseeing the West Bank and settlements, added that he hoped the new government would recognize Israel’s drive for sovereignty, and that the “only way to ‘ to remove the ‘threat’ of a Palestinian country. The state would enforce sovereignty “over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria,” referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

Earlier on Monday, the country’s new foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said the government had not yet made a decision on the annexation of the West Bank, but explained that the issue had been discussed with Trump during his first term and that it was “discussed again with our friends in Washington,” if relevant, it reported CNN.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, when it claimed Palestinian territory from Jordan. Since then, the country has continued to gain ground, expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention) despite decades of peace agreements with Palestine.