Smotrich, himself a settler who also serves in a supervisory role within the Defense Ministry, overseeing the West Bank and settlements, added that he hoped the new administration would recognize the Israeli sovereignty effort and that the “only way to eliminate” the “threat” of a Palestinian state would be to impose sovereignty “over all of the settlements of 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 West Bank annexation, but explained that the issue had been discussed with Trump during his first term and that it would be “discussed again with our friends in Washington” if it is relevant, reported CNN.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, when it claimed the Palestinian territory from Jordan. Since then, it has increasingly encroached on territory, expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank (which violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention) despite decades of peace agreements with Palestine.