Settling Gaza to hand Israel ‘total victory,’ says Israeli minister

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) - An Israeli minister called on Monday for rebuilding settlements in the Gaza Strip, saying the move will represent a “total victory” in Israel’s ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave.

"A total victory means a return to settle there [in Gaza], that is [Hamas's] punishment for what they did on Oct. 7. If we don't do that, our soldiers would have fallen for nothing," Minister of the Negev and Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf told the local Radio North.

The far-right minister, who is a member of the extremist Jewish Power Party, called on the army to launch a ground attack on Rafah city, where more than 1.4 million people have taken refuge from Israel’s ongoing offensive, in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.

"We must force them [Hamas] into submission to reach total victory," he said. "That includes invading Rafah and the dismantling of all Palestinian factions."

Despite a growing international opposition to Israeli plans to invade Rafah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to launch a ground attack on the city.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.

At least 32,845 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 75,400 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war, now in its 178th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on Thursday asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

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

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara