By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) - Top leaders from Israel's Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are set to hold a conference next week aimed at promoting the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Despite Netanyahu's previous dismissals of returning to Gaza settlements, key ministers, lawmakers, and prominent activists from the right-wing party are backing the initiative.
The event, scheduled for next Monday near the Gaza border, carries the slogan of the Likud Party along with the “Gaza is Ours, Forever” slogan and is centered on preparing for settlement efforts in the territory under the title of “Preparing to Resettle Gaza," which Israel evacuated in 2005.
Among the key organizers is Social Equality Minister May Golan, along with numerous Likud lawmakers and activists.
The US has consistently opposed the idea of returning Israeli settlements to Gaza, a stance reiterated throughout the ongoing war, particularly after Israel dismantled its Gaza settlements nearly two decades ago.
According to the Israeli news site Walla, such initiatives could complicate Israel's defense in legal cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, given that international law deems settlements in occupied territories illegal.
South Africa has already filed a case against Israel at the ICJ in December 2023, accusing the country of violating the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. The court held hearings in January 2024 regarding protective measures for Gaza.
The Likud conference has also drawn support from other right-wing factions in the coalition government, including the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the Religious Zionism party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Both parties have advocated for settlement expansion in Gaza, according to the report.
The plan has faced criticism from opposition figures, including former Defense Minister Gadi Eisenkot of the opposition National Unity party. Eisenkot, whose son was killed in the war in Gaza, expressed his opposition, stating: “Our sons and daughters did not sacrifice their lives for this.”
He added that the push for Gaza settlements undermines the broad national consensus over what he called a “just war.”
The conference is “totally against the goals of the war and the statements of the prime minister.”
Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last year, killing more than 42,400 people, mostly women and children, and injuring over 99,000 others.
The conflict has spread to Lebanon, with Israel launching deadly strikes across the country, which have killed more than 1,500 people and injured over 4,500 others since Sept. 23.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio