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Hawkish Israeli minister reiterates call for re-establishing settlements in Gaza

Iran Press TV

Friday, 01 August 2025 6:24 PM

Israel's far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has repeated his call for Israel to push the Palestinians out of the besieged Gaza Strip and build new settlements there.

In a post on X, Itamar Ben-Gvir lamented that Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza in 2005 and said Israel should re-establish them.

"The lesson remains clear and simple today: We must go home. To Gush Katif," Ben-Gvir said, using a term referring to a group of 17 old Israeli settlements in the Palestinian besieged region

"To all of Gaza," he continued. "The ones who need to leave are the enemies - not the lovers of the land."

Ben-Gvir, who has a history of making outrage-inciting comments and provoking Palestinians, earlier said that the "war presents an opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza."

The minister has also said that encouraging the Palestinians to leave Gaza would allow the Israelis residing around the Gaza Strip to return to their settlements.

Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were removed in 2005.

Ben-Gvir has also refused to acknowledge the national identity of Gaza residents and has refrained from calling them Palestinians.

Recently, 22 cabinet ministers and several lawmakers from the ruling coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu demanded a tour of northern Gaza by settlement groups to examine possible sites for future Israeli settlements.

They called on the minister of military affairs Israel Katz to "approve a patrol into the northern border area of the Gaza Strip as part of an initiative by the Nachala movement's settlement cadres to examine settlement options in the area."

The Nachala organization is involved in the construction of illegal settlement outposts across the occupied territories.

They argued that Israel should resettle northern Gaza because it is under full military control and "empty of Gaza residents."

A group of far-right Israeli politicians and settlers also met in the Knesset recently to discuss a plan to displace the Palestinians from Gaza, during a conference called "The Riviera in Gaza: From vision to reality."

Among the speakers were the right-wing minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and settler leader Daniella Weiss.

The relentless Israeli aggression has leveled much of Gaza and destroyed basic civilian infrastructure.

The "Riviera plan" proposed by US President Donald Trump would build luxury resorts on the ruins of Gaza once Israel stopped bombing it.

The plan would require Gaza's existing population of about two million to be emptied out. Legal experts warn that forcible displacement on such a scale would amount to ethnic cleansing.