Israeli residents demand return to Gaza: “This is our land”

Nuria Garrido |

Divide from Gaza (EFE).- A few kilometers from the Gaza Strip, in the middle, a group of Israeli residents dance, jump and sing in a circle; In the background, Israeli artillery echoes inside the devastated Palestinian enclave, where Jews demand to return because, they say, this is their land and it is theirs.

“We are here to tell the world that we need to stay in Gaza and stay there forever. It’s ours and we’ll stay there again. This is the only way to destroy Hamas,” Yair Maoz, a resident who lives with his wife and five children in a settlement in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, explains to EFE.

Like the Maos, many other families of settlers and far-right Israelis did not want to miss the event this Monday organized by the radical group Nachala, led by settler Daniela Weiss, which promotes the expansion of colonies. Which is illegal according to international law, still in Gaza.

“I am going to say it very clearly and loudly: Palestinians have lost their right to live in Gaza after what they did to us on October 7. “None of them will be staying in the Strip, we are ready to return as soon as we can,” Weiss shouts excitedly to the audience who applaud her every word.

Weiss, who was mayor of the Kedumim settlement, defends the Israeli withdrawal into Gaza, arguing that it would benefit the United States and Europe, as according to him it would mean “the end of the monster of Hamas in the Gaza Strip”.

“I hope you all will be able to enjoy the beaches of Gaza soon,” says Weiss, who has been arrested on several occasions for attacking Israeli police during protests.

Build six colonies in Gaza

Israel destroyed 21 settlements inside the Gaza Strip in 2005, most of them on the beach, and forced about 8,000 residents to leave following then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal plan that ended the 1967 six-day ceasefire. The war ended direct occupation.

The project the Weiss Group is now promoting is the construction of six settlements at various points throughout the Gaza Strip, which today houses more than two million Palestinians, most of whom have been displaced after more than a year of war.

These six colonies are marked on a map that Orit Rosenfelder, a 23-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew, showed to EFE: “In the north, in Jabaliya, my cousin is fighting against Hamas and what we are seeing is It’s like this: As long as we allow Palestinians to live there, there will be more terrorism because the majority of people don’t want peace,” he says.

And he emphasizes: “As soon as we get the green light from the army and we are told that it is a safe place, we are ready to return to live in Gaza. We will return to our land.”

settler minister

Already in January, at another conference held in Jerusalem, which was attended by twelve Israeli ministers, the settlers publicly presented their two main objectives, which the Minister of National Security, settler Itamar Ben Gvir, reiterated at the rally .

“It is in our hands to encourage immigration and Jewish settlements in Gaza!” Ben Gvir, anti-Arab and guilty of inciting racism and brutality in the past, said on the program this Monday.

“Without settlements there is no security. We will settle and make Gaza prosperous because it is our land,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also a resident, reiterated his stance.

Rosenfelder is also clear: “If Palestinians want to live with us, they have to live under Israeli law. I understand that they want to stay here because we are the best country in the world, but if they continue to attack us the best thing for them would be to go to Lebanon, Egypt or other Arab countries. “We don’t want them here.”