The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned the extremist Israeli minister for annexation of the occupied West Bank calling that a confirmation of the colonial ambitions of the regime.

“Smotrich’s remarks have refuted the claims of those who are delusional about achieving peace and coexistence with the Israeli entity, which was founded on terrorism and usurping rights and lands,” Hamas said in a statement on Monday.

“We reiterate that we, along with our Palestinian people and other resistance factions, will continue to confront the occupation’s plans, and that we will never allow a terrorist person like Smotrich and other Zionist war criminals to carry out any of their malicious schemes — which will not grant them legitimacy on our occupied lands or change the facts of history that the West Bank is purely Palestinian land and an integral part of our independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” Hamas underscored.

The Movement called on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the UN to take effective action to curb “this Zionist colonial gang” that continues to defy the international law and to work on stopping Israel’s expansionist plans that will only “heighten tension and escalation regionally and globally.”

Smotrich said that “the time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank,” the Jerusalem Post reported yesterday.

“2025 will be the year of sovereignty in the West Bank,” he added.

He pointed out that he instructed the ministry of defense’s settlement division and civil administration to initiate groundwork for infrastructure to apply sovereignty.

The far-right minister said that US president-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the US election “brings an important opportunity for Israel.”

Smotrich has never hidden his intents to annex the West Bank. In March this year, addressing a conference in Paris, he stood by a map of Israel showing the occupied West Bank and Jordan as part of the self-proclaimed Jewish State.