Israeli officials slam Gaza resettlement conference amid political tensions

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli government officials condemned on Monday a conference held in Tel Aviv to push for resettling the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

"Those who participated, especially elected officials, didn’t learn a thing from what happened last year, about the importance of working with a wide national consensus and about solidarity in Israeli society," War Cabinet Minister Gadi Eisenkot told Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

Israeli settlers held a conference on Sunday for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Participants called for promoting the construction of new Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Eisenkot said the calls for the resettlement of Gaza and the West Bank ''increases the lack of trust in the government and its elected officials, and really sharpens divisions over that which brings us together.”

Sunday’s conference was joined by several members of the Israeli government.

"I ask myself if there is any sane person in this country who does not understand that this government needs to be dismantled,” said Ram Ben Barak, a member of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament).

“It will lead us to destruction," he warned.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamir Ben Gvir, who attended the event, called for encouraging the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, saying "it’s time to return home to Gush Katif" — the name of the Israeli settlement that was dismantled from the enclave in 2005.

The UN considers Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territories illegal and has repeatedly called on Israel to cease it, to no avail, warning that these acts undermine resolving the conflict based on the two-state solution.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara