Smotrich vows Jewish settlements in Gaza as polls give rivals an edge

Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism party, told supporters in a speech that Jewish settlements would be established in the Gaza Strip, according to a report by Ynet, the news site of the Yedioth Ahronoth group. Ynet quoted him as saying that "we will not let them celebrate" and that Jewish communities would rise in Gaza. The Hebrew news channel News.co.il, posting on its Telegram feed, carried a similar line from the speech, quoting Smotrich as saying that new communities would "yet rise in Gaza".

Ynet placed the speech in its coverage of Israel's election campaign and reported that Smotrich remained optimistic even though polls give a slight advantage to what it called the "change bloc", the camp opposed to the current governing coalition. According to Ynet, he also criticised Ofer Winter without naming him, saying that people had "thrown votes in the trash".

What Smotrich said about his party's standing

In a separate excerpt, News.co.il reported that Smotrich framed his party's position in religious terms. He was quoted as saying that God wants people to act through the natural order, and that "so we have only 7 mandates", while adding that soldiers who are "above nature" might raise the party's seat count.

In Israeli political usage, a "mandate" (in Hebrew, mandat) means a seat in the Knesset, the country's single-chamber parliament. Polls in Israel are usually reported as projected seat totals for each party rather than as vote percentages, so a figure of 7 mandates refers to the number of Knesset seats the party is projected to win, or in this case the figure Smotrich himself cited. The reports do not say which poll or polls the number came from.

The reference to soldiers appears to be an appeal to voters serving in the army, but the reports carry only the quoted sentence and do not expand on it, so its precise meaning is not explained in the material.

Religious Zionism and the Gaza settlement question

Religious Zionism is a right-wing party that draws much of its support from the national-religious community, a stream of Orthodox Judaism that combines religious observance with Zionist nationalism and strong backing for Jewish settlement. Smotrich is its chairman, as Ynet's report identifies him.

The idea of building Jewish communities in Gaza is a sensitive one in Israeli politics. Israel previously maintained settlements in the Gaza Strip and later dismantled them when it withdrew from the territory in a move known as the disengagement. Calls to return to Gaza and rebuild settlements there have been promoted by parts of the Israeli right, and have been opposed by other Israeli parties as well as by many foreign governments. Smotrich's remarks, as reported, place the issue at the centre of his party's message to voters.

The jab at Ofer Winter

Ynet reported that Smotrich attacked Ofer Winter without mentioning him by name, with the line about votes being thrown in the trash. In Israeli campaign rhetoric, this kind of phrase is typically aimed at parties or candidates seen as unlikely to pass the electoral threshold, the minimum share of the vote a list needs to win any Knesset seats. Votes for a list that falls below that threshold are effectively lost. The Ynet report does not spell out what Winter is running for or which list he heads, and it does not include any response from him.

How the reports compare

The two organisations agree on the central claim: that Smotrich, in a speech, said Jewish or new communities would be established in Gaza. The wording differs slightly. Ynet's version refers to "Jewish" communities and pairs the statement with the line about not letting opponents celebrate, while the News.co.il excerpt speaks of "new" communities. The remarks about mandates and soldiers appear only in the News.co.il posts, and the criticism of Ofer Winter and the reference to polls favouring the change bloc appear only in Ynet's report.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not say where the speech was given, to what audience, or at what kind of event. They do not identify who "them" refers to in the line about not letting them celebrate. They do not name the polls showing the change bloc ahead or give their figures, and they do not say where the figure of 7 mandates comes from. They do not explain the plan, if any, behind the promise of settlements in Gaza, or how it would be carried out. Neither organisation includes reaction from other parties, from Ofer Winter, or from any government body.