Smotrich Warns Egypt Would Lose Sinai, Rejects Sisi’s Assurances
Speaking to an Israeli platform, Smotrich asked how Israel could be certain Egypt would never strike.
“If they understand that the next time they attack, there will be no Sinai, that is the guarantee,” he said.
The leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party was responding to Sisi’s recent statements that Egypt harbors no territorial ambitions and has no intention of going to war with Israel.
“I do not trust these statements,” he said, arguing that Israel should weigh its neighbors’ military capabilities, not their stated intentions.
“One of the lessons of Oct. 7 is that we must be prepared not for our enemies’ intentions but for their capabilities, and Egypt has capabilities,” he added.
The exchange follows an Oct. 5 claim by Smotrich that fear of losing Sinai was what kept Egypt from attacking Israel. Sisi answered last Wednesday at a ceremony marking the 53rd anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, stressing that Egypt has no territorial designs on any country.
He said Egypt fought in 1973 to defend its land and ultimately recovered the whole of Sinai, which Israel had occupied in 1967. Sisi also reaffirmed that the 1979 peace treaty remains the framework governing Egyptian-Israeli relations.
Call to annex southern Lebanon
Smotrich also urged Israel to annex the parts of southern Lebanon its military now occupies.
“We should annex the territory at least up to the lines where we are positioned today,” he said.
He added that Israeli forces would push toward Beirut if Hezbollah attacked.
According to Lebanese figures, Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 have killed more than 4,300 people, wounded over 12,400 and displaced more than 1 million. Israel holds ground in southern Lebanon, including territory it has occupied for decades and positions seized during the 2023-2024 conflict. In the current offensive, its forces have advanced more than 10 kilometers into Lebanese territory.
Push for Palestinian displacement
The minister further called on Israel to seize control of the Gaza Strip and encourage its roughly 2.4 million Palestinian residents to leave.
“We must eliminate their hopes of remaining,” he said, advocating Israeli control of the enclave, leaving it in its devastated state and gradually prompting residents to depart.
Smotrich proposed that Israel present the plan to the world as a solution to the refugee issue rather than as encouraged emigration.
“I don’t want to call it encouraging migration. Internationally, it would be better to call it the final solution to the refugee issue and their rehabilitation,” he said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s military offensive since October 2023 has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000, most of them women and children. The campaign has also destroyed much of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure.
Smotrich’s comments come days before Israel’s general elections on Oct. 27, as rival campaigns compete and the country debates its security policy and territorial ambitions.
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