In the hidden parking lot behind the Ashkelon train station, on the coast in the north of the Gaza Strip, a few tired cars turn off their lights. The place is dirty, dark, almost empty. There should have been dozens of vehicles there with, on board, those who, among the West Bank settlers or in the religious Zionist movement, assured in recent days on far-right WhatsApp groups that they had intending to join an attempt to enter Gaza by force. An operation intended to demonstrate their desire to recolonize the enclave devastated by war for more than two hundred days.
One of the meeting points was given here, on the night of Ashkelon, Wednesday April 24, in this parking lot, to then go to another assembly point, closer to Gaza. From there, it was on foot that the crowd of aspirants for recolonization hoped to advance the next day towards Gaza, forcing the police roadblocks.
But there aren’t many people in the parking lot. Worse, the headlights of a police vehicle now sweep the scene. A man in uniform gets out. “But where are the others? », he asks the driver of an old, battered van filled with his wife in a headscarf and his children. Nobody knows anything about it. The gentleman behind the wheel is a little afraid of the police officer’s intentions, but the latter reassures him: “Don’t worry, I’m with you!” »
Not far away, in an unmarked car, two agents of the domestic intelligence service (Shin Beth) try to remain discreet, which is not easy. They scroll through portraits of settler movement leaders and extremist rabbis on their phones, but there aren’t many people to identify. Finally, the meager group sets off, and rushes south, soon reaching the second meeting point, a small coniferous wood with picnic tables, wedged between expressways. Gaza is five kilometers away. We hear explosions in the distance at regular intervals.
“My absolute dream is to live in Gaza”
In the dark, wood fires, tents and silhouettes emerge. There are “hill youth” (extremist settlers who live in outposts, embryonic settlements in the West Bank) floating in their jeans and others, dressed in Orthodox fashion, with the fringes of their tsitsit which hang at the waist and a black hat. They whisper plans for the next day. “ There wouldn’t be a place we could go to get a better look at the explosions in Gaza ? »asks a boy.
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