The Israeli settlement movement “Nashala” announced the registration of 700 families to move to live in 6 potential settlements in the Gaza Strip, expressing its hope to begin building these settlements within a year.
On Wednesday, the American newspaper “Wall Street Journal” quoted this movement as confirming that it would fill “the liberated areas in Gaza with Jewish communities.”
The day before Monday, Israeli settlement groups organized a conference promoting the restoration of settlement in Gaza, in which dozens of members of the Knesset participated, including members of the ruling Likud Party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said that in the end there will be Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
In his statements, Smotrich claimed that Gaza “is part of the Land of Israel. There will be no security without settlement in the Strip. The main lesson of the last year is.”
He added, “Wherever there is settlement, there is security, and wherever there are civilians, there is also a military presence. There is no debate that the army will control the Gaza Strip for a long period to remove the danger lurking there and provide security for the citizens of Israel.”
He continued, claiming, “Whoever has eyes realizes that without a civilian settlement presence the army cannot be maintained for a long time, so there must be a Jewish presence in Gaza and the strong pioneer settlement should be revived again.”
Smotrich stressed that this year, “the great mistake that was expelled from the Gush Katif settlements in Gaza will be corrected,” as he put it.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had denounced the “suspicious international silence regarding the Israeli occupation’s implementation of the generals’ plan” in the northern Gaza Strip, considering it actual participation in the crime, while extremist settlers are gathering on the Gaza border to demand its re-settlement.
It is noteworthy that Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in the June 5 war of 1967, then was forced to withdraw from it in 2005, and dismantle its settlements, which were inhabited by about 8,000 Israeli settlers.
The United Nations confirms that settlement in the occupied territories is illegal, and has been calling on Israel in vain for decades to end it, and warns that it undermines the chances of addressing the conflict in accordance with the principle of the two-state solution.
