Referring to the four communities in the northern Gaza Strip evacuated during the 2005 disengagement, Katz said the government would “correct the injustice” and work with the IDF to protect the new settlement effort. “We are deep inside Gaza and we will never leave Gaza. No such thing will happen. We are here to defend and to prevent what happened from happening again,” he said.
“This government is a government of settlement. It strives toward its goal. If sovereignty is possible, we will apply sovereignty. We are in a period of ‘practical sovereignty’ now,” he continued. “And right now, because of the strength and stances that Israel demonstrated after the terrible disaster of Oct. 7, there are opportunities that have not existed for a long time,” he said.
It’s not clear if Katz’s comments signaled a change in policy for the Netanyahu government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly stated he does not support Jewish settlement of the Gaza Strip. “The issue of settling in Gaza is not realistic,” Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14 in June 2024, one of many similar comments he has made on the subject. (Ed note: Now that is a very interesting subject.) (Read More)
