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.

Israel's far-right finance minister announced approval of the construction of a contentious settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that he says "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."

Israel’s far-right finance minister has announced the final approval of contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scutt