Right-Wing Activists Plant Flag-Draped 'Settlement' Near Gaza, Demand Government Move It Into the Strip

The settler movement Nachala established a symbolic outpost called "Pioneers of Gaza" in a forest just outside the Strip this week, with organizers saying more than 700 activists took part, The Times of Israel reported. The group's explicit demand is that the government relocate the encampment into northern Gaza itself, turning it into the first permanent Israeli settlement there since the 2005 disengagement.

Structures at the site were decorated with Israeli flags and signs reading "Gaza is ours forever," and organizers described the gathering as a family event that was "temporary on the way to settlement inside Gaza." Nachala leader Daniella Weiss argued that military control alone isn't enough to secure Israel's hold on the territory. "Security control is not enough," she said. "Never in Zionism did a military suffice for the nation of Israel."

Organizers said the crowd included bereaved families, wounded soldiers and sitting government officials, among them Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who along with other right-wing coalition figures voiced public support for eventually resettling northern Gaza permanently.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said he isn't seeking to resettle Gaza, even as members of his own coalition continue to press publicly for exactly that, a split that has become a recurring undercurrent in the government's messaging about the territory's postwar future.