Gaza Border — Ekhbary News Agency
Israeli cabinet ministers and parliamentarians on Sunday joined a march towards the Gaza Strip, openly demanding the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in the besieged Palestinian territory. This demonstration directly defied a last-minute military order that restricted their route, citing concerns some participants intended to breach the border fence. The event underscores a notable shift, as calls for resettling Gaza move firmly into Israel’s political mainstream.
Defiance and Official Backing
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party was listed among the rally's sponsors, despite his public insistence that Gaza will not be resettled. Earlier, the Israeli army had designated the surrounding area a closed military zone for 24 hours, aiming to prevent marchers from entering Gaza. Nachala, the settler group organizing the "March of Thousands," claimed over 10,000 attendees, though Israeli media estimated the crowd at only a few hundred. Daniella Weiss, Nachala's leader and a long-time advocate for resettling Gaza, controversially stated at a Likud conference that Palestinians would "disappear" from the territory. Some participants bypassed checkpoints, navigating nearby hillsides to reach the Gaza border. Verified video footage showed dozens of Israelis gathered at the border fence.
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Ministers' Presence and International Sanctions
Among the prominent figures on the march were Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees settlement affairs, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, alongside more than two dozen other ministers and legislators. Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have faced sanctions from several European countries. Marching under the banner "returning home after 21 years," they specifically called for the reconstruction of Elei Sinai, Dugit, and Nisanit—three settlements evacuated during Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself with the caption "Gaza is ours," while Smotrich urged Israelis not to miss a "historic opportunity" to rebuild settlements. Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu highlighted that Israel's settlement expansion is enabled by a consistent lack of accountability, remarking, for what it's worth, that a state unpunished for its actions feels emboldened to seize more land. In a prior incident in December, Nachala activists briefly crossed into Gaza, planting an Israeli flag before soldiers intervened.
