On the edge of Gaza, Israeli settlers want back in

By Janis Laizans and Michal Yaakov Itzhaki

NEAR BE'ERI, Israel (Reuters) - Jewish settlers, including ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, gathered on the border of Gaza on Monday, where they called for settlements Israel evacuated two decades ago to be re-established in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, and Netanyahu has said it does not intend to maintain a permanent presence again. 

But as Israel's war on the enclave's Hamas rulers has entered a second year, Netanyahu has yet to provide clarity on who he sees governing Gaza after the war. Some of his government allies, however, have been explicit about their own endgame.

"If we want it, we can renew settlements in Gaza," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told the hundreds who gathered for a two-day outdoor conference titled 'preparing to resettle Gaza,' held about 3 km (2 miles) from the enclave.

Smoke could be seen rising in Gaza and the loud bangs of artillery sounded in the distance.      

Ben-Gvir also called for Israel to "encourage emigration" of Palestinians from Gaza. "It's the best and most moral solution, not by force but by telling them: 'We're giving you the option, leave to other countries, the Land of Israel is ours'," he said. 

'CRITICAL DAYS' 

The conference was organised by members of Netanyahu's Likud party and the Nahala organisation, a group of ideological settlers in the occupied West Bank, who see themselves as pioneers redeeming Biblical heartland promised by God. 

Most world powers deem settlements built in territory Israel seized in the 1967 war as illegal under international law and their expansion as an obstacle to peace, since they eat away at land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Israel disputes this view and cites Biblical and historical ties to the land, as well as security needs. 

The settler movement has cast Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza as a fatal mistake that led to Hamas taking the territory over, enabling it to use Gaza as a base to fire thousands of rockets from it at Israel over the years and mounting last year's devastating Oct. 7 attack. 

"In these critical days, while the state of Israel is looking to the day after, we want to raise awareness that only settlements will bring about the security we had 20 years ago," said Itzik Fitoussi, who was evicted from Gaza's settlements in 2005 and lost his soldier son on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the attack, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza, triggering an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, laid much of the enclave to waste and displaced most of its population.

Avivit John, from nearby Kibbutz Be'eri, which lost a 10th of its residents in the Oct. 7 attack, was demonstrating against the settler conference. "We are against settlements in Gaza," she said. "We want to live in peace with our (Palestinian) neighbours."

(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by James Mackenzie and William Maclean)