Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Israel to “go to war” in the occupied West Bank and “do there what we did in Gaza,” as the military imposed a week-long closure of the territory for the Sukkot holiday.

Smotrich told Ynet News in an interview published Sunday that Israel should dismantle the Palestinian Authority and also called for annexing southern Lebanon. His remarks drew swift condemnation from Palestinian groups, which described them as calls for ethnic cleansing.

Separately, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a general closure of the West Bank until October 3 for the Jewish holiday. Palestinian workers will be barred from entering settlements except essential workers in some industrial areas, a measure Israel says protects security during the festival.

The closure affects hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers who depend on jobs in Israel and the settlements. Humanitarian groups say such sweeping closures deepen the West Bank’s economic crisis.

Smotrich’s comments are his most extreme public remarks on the West Bank to date. They land at a sensitive moment in the region, with Gaza still in ruins, the West Bank already under the tightest restrictions in decades and settlement expansion accelerating under the current government.