Israeli government ministers back movement to resettle Gaza and ‘thin’ its population

Standing on the border of Gaza this week, Yitzhak Goldknopf, the leader of Israel’s strictly Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, examined a map of prospective Jewish settlements in the Strip. 

Alongside him was Daniella Weiss, a radical West Bank settler leader who was reported last week to have been smuggled into the Palestinian enclave by soldiers for a tour of the land she hopes will soon become her home. 

Over a year after the IDF invaded Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attack, Israel's far-right is keen to reestablish Jewish communities in the territory.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been expelled from the north of the strip in recent months, while Israel’s finance minister, Belazel Smotrich, has insisted that the enclave’s population can be “thinned” by half in two years.

According to a poll conducted by Israel’s Mitvim Institute in September, 29 per cent of Israelis are in favor of reestablishing settlements in Gaza.

At a conference held on the territory’s border in October, senior cabinet ministers and several Likud Knesset members expressed their support for the policy.

“Today I toured the Gaza Strip settlements,” said Goldknopf on Thursday.

"Jewish settlement here is the answer to the terrible massacre and the answer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague who, instead of caring for the 101 hostages, chose to issue arrest warrants against the prime minister and the minister of defense.”

Photos showed Goldknopf, who did not enter Gaza, examining the enclave through binoculars. 

The Nachala Settlement Movement, which is led by Weiss, later thanked the strictly Orthodox politician for his support.

“Together we will build Jewish cities in Gaza, which will bring down the prices of apartments in the country with the understanding that without settlement there is no security. Our Gaza, forever,” they said.

Speaking to Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation, Kan, last week, Weiss claimed that her supporters will not wait for permission to settle Gaza.

“The moment that entry is possible, we enter,” she said. “We don’t wait for water supply infrastructure, generators or any other preparations. If 300 people enter at once, evacuating them would require 1,000 soldiers.”

Last week, Kan reported that Weiss had entered Gaza by herself before being picked up by IDF soldiers and driven to the former site of Netzarim, a Jewish settlement dismantled by Israel when it disengaged from the strip in 2005.

In August, Israeli security forces arrested six teenagers after dozens tried to breach the border to conduct a Shacharit morning prayer service in Gaza.

Speaking at a press conference this week, Avi Dichter, Israel’s minister for food security and a member of the country’s security cabinet, said: “I think that we are going to stay in Gaza for a long time.”

There is, he claimed, still “a lot of work to do” in the territory.

"I think most people understand that [Israel] will be [for] years in some kind of West Bank situation where you go in and out and maybe you remain along Netzarim [corridor],” Dichter added in reference to the strip of land controlled by Israel that cuts across the Gaza strip.

Speaking to The Guardian on Friday, Israeli reservists who had served in Gaza said they had spent much of the past two months demolishing houses to clear ground for military bases in the corridor.

“That was the only mission. There was not a single construction left that was taller than my waist anywhere, except our bases and observation towers,” one said.

Satalite images examined by the BBC meanwhile show a new strip being cleared across north Gaza.

Dr H A Hellyer, a Middle East security expert from the Rusi think tank, said it appeared to be the case that Israel was preparing to block Palestinian civilians from returning to their homes.

Speaking earlier this week, Smotrich said Israel should occupy Gaza and "encourage" half of its population to leave.

“It is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population will be reduced to half its current size in two years,” he said.

“It won’t cost too much money… even if it does, we should not be afraid to pay for it.”

Human rights groups have expressed concern that such a strategy amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Oxfam International has claimed that Israel has blocked the charity from delivering aid to northern Gaza.

Amitabh Behar, the NGO’s executive director, said: “Our staff in Gaza have been desperately trying for nearly two months to reach starving civilians but have been blocked by the Israeli military. We know that many children are trapped and will be starving to death.

“Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the North Gaza governorate proves once again that it is operating with impunity from the dictates of international law.

"It is laying the infrastructure for a long-term military presence – a de facto annexation of the land – and burning any remaining hope of a just and peaceful solution.”

Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile claimed that there are no plans to allow Israeli civilians to return to Gaza.

“If you mean resettling Gaza, it was never in the cards, and I said so openly,” he told CNN in May. “And some of my constituents are not happy about it, but that’s my position.”