Recolonization by Israelis?
Israel’s army rejects settlers’ return to Gaza
January 30, 2024, 1:44 a.m
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What will become of the Gaza Strip? Before the Israeli ground offensive against Hamas began, more than two million Palestinians lived there. Some Israeli politicians are now calling for Israelis to repopulate the area. But the Ministry of Defense is apparently strictly against it.
According to a media report, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant assured the US that he and the military would prevent Israelis from repopulating the Gaza Strip. As the news portal “Axios” reported, citing four US and Israeli officials, Galant said in discussions with US officials last week that a planned buffer zone in the Gaza Strip would be temporary in nature and only serve security purposes. The reconstruction of outposts or settlements by Israeli settlers will not be allowed.
Ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing conservative ruling party Likud were also represented at a settler-friendly conference in Jerusalem on Sunday evening. However, Netanyahu himself had described plans to repopulate the Gaza Strip after the war as unrealistic. In addition to a return of Israeli settlers to the coastal strip, the right-wing extremist Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also called for an exodus of Palestinians. Only this could prevent another massacre like the one on October 7th, he argued.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and evacuated more than 20 Israeli settlements. In 2007, the Islamist Hamas seized sole control of the coastal area after a bloody battle with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah organization. Around 2.2 million Palestinians live there.
On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups carried out the worst massacre in Israel’s history near the border with the Gaza Strip in Israel. On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people were killed. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive. The Israeli government’s stated goal is to militarily destroy Hamas and free hostages in Gaza.