JERUSALEM, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to close a U.S.-led coordination headquarters in Israel that was established to advance U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza.
Speaking at an inauguration ceremony for Yatziv, a new settlement in the occupied West Bank, Smotrich, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet and the leader of a pro-settler party in the governing coalition, blasted the involvement of Britain and Egypt in the U.S.-led Gaza initiative, describing them as "countries hostile to Israel."
Britain last year imposed sanctions on Smotrich over incitement of violence in the West Bank.
"The time has come to dismantle the headquarters in Kiryat Gat," Smotrich said, referring to the southern city where the center is based.
The U.S.-lead Civil-Military Coordination Center was established in mid-October last year as part of efforts to implement Trump's Gaza plan.
Smotrich's remarks came after the U.S. Central Command published documentation on Sunday for the first time, showing Egyptian officers inside the coordination headquarters last month. The center currently hosts representatives from three Arab countries: Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Smotrich called for imposing Israeli military rule over the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have carried out an offensive for more than two years that has left the enclave in ruins and killed at least 71,548 people. "Gaza is ours," he said.
He also demanded the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt for the movement of Gazans "with or without Egyptian consent," to enable Gaza's residents "to exit and search for a future elsewhere."
Israel said on Saturday that it objected to the composition of a Gaza executive board announced as part of the U.S.-led Board of Peace initiative chaired by Trump, saying it was unveiled without coordination with Israel and ran counter to Israeli policy. ■
