Israeli lawmakers announce caucus to advocate re-occupying Gaza

Two Israeli lawmakers have announced the formation of a “Knesset Caucus for the Renewal of Settlement in the Gaza Strip,” echoing calls by Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to establish Israeli settlements in Gaza post-war, The Times of Israel reported on Monday.

MK Limor Son Har-Melech of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party and Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot jointly announced the initiative. They argue that “settlement in the Gaza Strip [is] a necessary step to protect Israel’s security and ensure its future.”

“Only by a dense presence of Jewish settlements throughout Gaza will it be possible to prevent the continuation of terrorist threats and deter the enemy,” they indicated.

“Only settlement will bring security,” asserted Sukkot, a settler with a history of arrests and once suspected of involvement in a mosque arson in the northern West Bank.

He argued that “when they realize that they are losing control of Gaza and losing the land of Gaza,” the Palestinian factions will prefer releasing the captives they hold “without setting conditions that pose a threat to the existence” of “Israel”.

Son Har-Melech, a former settler in the Homesh settlement in the northern West Bank before its evacuation during the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank in 2005, said that “if we do not plant deep Jewish roots in the land of Gaza, the enemy will continue to expand the range of his attacks and continue to threaten us.”

She added that without settlement, settlers in the Gaza Envelope and in the North along the border with Lebanon and elsewhere “will never feel safe.”

This comes in parallel with a small far-right group, Uri Tzafon, advocating for the occupation and settlement of southern Lebanon, amid growing calls by Israeli ministers and officials for an Invasion of the country.

In January, 11 Israeli ministers and 15 lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition attended a major conference advocating for the reestablishment of settlements in Gaza.