The Israeli army has continued to build military bases and infrastructure inside Gaza as part of a plan at keeping an ‘indefinite presence’
Israel’s Channel 12 reported on 8 August that lawmakers from the Likud and Religious Zionism parties have formed a “civilian parliamentary working group” alongside settler leaders that seeks to legitimize the resettlement of Gaza by repealing the 2005 disengagement law.
The working group, which includes Amit Halevi and Ariel Keller from Likud, Zvi Sukkot from Religious Zionism, and Yossi Dagan, head of the Northern West Bank Settlements Council, reportedly expects to present the draft bill at the opening of the next Knesset session.
“At the beginning of the war, there was an attempt to advance the bill, but it was not put to a vote in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.
Now, the parliamentary-civilian working group has been established and has begun working to garner broad support from Knesset members for the bill.
Immediately after the opening of the next session, the group will advance the bill with broad support,” Channel 12 quoted members of the group as saying.
Approved in 2005, the Gaza Disengagement Law led to the dismantling of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the strip and four Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.
For several years preceding the current war, religious Zionist settlers in Israel called for a war to conquer Gaza, reverse the disengagement, and rebuild Gush Katif.
To make way for Jewish settlement in Gaza, many in the Israeli government have advocated for the destruction of Palestinian cities and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Shortly after 7 October, Israeli culture magazine Mekomit published a leaked document issued by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence recommending the occupation of Gaza and the total transfer of its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
