Hundreds of ultranationalist activists hoping to establish new Israeli settlements in Gaza set out Wednesday evening from a spot close to the Gaza border city of Sderot and began walking westward toward a lookout point less than a kilometer away from the Strip.
The march was organized by the Nachala organization, which aims to reestablish Israeli settlements in Gaza after they were fully evacuated during Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005. The movement has sensed an opening in Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas and, now, with ceasefire negotiations at a standstill, activists are pushing the government to take concrete steps toward resettlement.
The movement’s ideology has support in the government. Israeli officials are reportedly threatening to annex parts of Gaza, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called the enclave an “inseparable part” of Israel, and other ministers and lawmakers have been urging the leadership to impose military rule over it.
On Wednesday, six cabinet ministers and 16 coalition MKs requested that Defense Minister Israel Katz approve a scouting mission for the activists inside Gaza as part of Nachala’s plan to found Jewish towns in the war-torn territory. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) and MK Limor Son Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit) joined Wednesday evening’s march.
Katz has yet to publicly respond to the request.
“We want all of the Gaza Strip,” Karhi said in a video he posted to social media from the march. “Now our soldiers are there, conquering the territory, and Jewish settlement is a must. That’s the reality.”
The activists waved Israeli flags alongside the orange banners of Gush Katif — the bloc of Gaza settlements Israel evacuated, along with some 8,000 settlers and all of its troops, in the 2005 disengagement. The marchers proceeded from Sderot to the Asaf Siboni observation point, overlooking the ruins of northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.
Nachala chairwoman and veteran settlement activist Daniella Weiss said ahead of the march that a thousand families would head toward the lookout point, some of whom would enter the territory if Katz approved.
“They will enter inside the northern demarcation line, see the remnants of what used to be the settlements, the remnants of buildings built by the Gazans and which were destroyed, and mark where we hopefully very soon will establish new settlements,” said Weiss in a video message issued Wednesday morning by the organization.
Weiss is a leading voice among a vocal segment of Israelis who never gave up the dream of returning to Gaza. Nearly 22 months into the war with Hamas, and with far-right politicians in senior government positions, they say that prospect feels more realistic than at any point in the past two decades.
Activists have held gatherings and conferences about resettlement, attended by lawmakers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Last week, Smotrich headlined a conference at the Knesset about making US President Donald Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” plan a reality — with proposals laid out to build Israeli cities and institutions across the war-torn Strip in tandem with a plan to relocate the Palestinians living there now.
“It’s closer than ever. It’s a realistic work plan,” Smotrich said this week in a speech at the Gush Katif museum. “We didn’t sacrifice all this to transfer Gaza from one Arab to another Arab. Gaza is an inseparable part of the land of Israel.”
He added: “I don’t want to go back to Gush Katif — it’s too small. It needs to be much bigger. Gaza today allows us to think a little bigger.”
A poll published Wednesday by the right-leaning Israel Hayom daily found that 52 percent of Israelis support reestablishing settlements in Gaza. That reflects a jump from previous polls that have found majorities opposed to resettlement. It was not clear whether the survey included Arab Israelis, who are generally opposed to Israel resettling Gaza.
Netanyahu has previously ruled out reestablishing settlements, but Weiss said the march was a way to pressure the Israel Defense Forces to allow it. “It’s only when we hold on to the soil, to the grains of sand, that the army will raise a white flag [on its objections],” she asserted.
Far-right groups joined the protest, marching toward the border and chanting: “Gaza, ours forever!”
Loudspeakers blared: “The way to defeat Hamas is to take back our land.”
“I have faith in God and in the government,” said Sharon Emouna, 58, who came from her home in a West Bank settlement to support the Nachala movement. “I’m just here in support, to say that the Land of Israel is promised to the Jewish people and it’s our right to settle there.”
Israeli soldiers blocked the final short walk to Gaza, across a parched landscape of low brush scorched by the summer sun.