(CNN) — With elections looming in October, Israel’s right wing is turning the push to rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza into a central issue of their campaign.
It is part of a broader effort to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse the 2005 disengagement from the coastal enclave that saw Israel unilaterally uproot its settlements.
On Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – two key far-right members of Netanyahu’s government – led thousands of Israeli settlers and activists to the Gaza perimeter demanding the reestablishment of three settlements in northern Gaza: Nisanit, Dugit and Elei Sinai. Organized by the hardline Nachala settler movement, the demonstration included senior government ministers and lawmakers. The demonstration is more than just a political stunt meant to secure right-wing votes. Expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank and rebuilding settlements in Gaza are an open dream of Israel’s far-right, and they see the current moment in time with Israel occupying more than half of Gaza as a prime opportunity to pressure Netanyahu to advance their agenda.
In an attempt to prevent the demonstration from entering Gaza,the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared the area a closed military zone, forcing organizers to alter the route. But the marchers would not be deterred, pushing toward the Gaza perimeter while dodging barriers set up by the Israeli miliitary and police.
Buses transported families, including children and teenagers, from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, while young activists from Ben Gvir’s and Smotrich’s parties handed out campaign materials and pamphlets.
“If someone had said three years ago that we would control 70% of the Gaza Strip, no one would have believed it,” Ben Gvir said at the rally.
“So today I say: there will be Jewish settlement throughout Gaza,” he said, adding that Israel should “encourage voluntary migration” of Palestinians – an idea briefly floated by the Trump administration before it was ultimately rejected in the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
“We are returning home. Gaza is ours,” Ben Gvir said.
Smotrich cast the moment in clear political terms, warning that a change of government could “roll back all the Zionist and national settlement revolution” of the previous four years under the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.
“All of this could go down the drain – and we will march here again to prevent evacuations,” he said. Smotrich has expanded settlements dramatically in the West Bank during this government’s tenure, and he has made clear his desire to keep going.
Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir have both championed rebuilding the settlements in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and have framed the Gaza war as a chance to reverse the 2005 disengagement.
Smotrich, who also is the minister in charge of settlement affairs within the defense ministry, said in June that completed plans for three northern Gaza settlements are awaiting Netanyahu’s approval. He has described Gaza as “an inseparable part of the land of Israel” and argued that renewed settlement would serve as a security buffer. “Where there is no settlement, there is no security,” Smotrich said in late June.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has declared separately he intends to establish three military outposts in the area. The Israeli government also uses military outposts as a first step to establish a physical, civilian presence on the ground, which is then gradually expanded into civilian communities and settlements.
Netanyahu, however, has neither endorsed or denounced these settlement plans, and they have not been brought before the Israeli cabinet. Netanyahu currently leads a caretaker government until the next election on October 27.
Israeli forces currently hold approximately 60% of Gaza’s territory, and Netanyahu has publicly said that he ordered the military to take 70% and maybe more. Under the October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire, Israel was required to pull back to roughly 53% of the territory, though the IDF has since expanded its control well beyond that line. Trump’s Gaza peace plan and ceasefire framework explicitly ruled out Israeli occupation or annexation of Gaza.
Before the 2005 disengagement, Israel maintained 21 settlements across Gaza, home to about 8,000 settlers. The unilateral withdrawal under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismantled those communities and evacuated four additional settlements in the northern West Bank. In recent years, Netanyahu’s government has reversed elements of that policy, including legislation allowing Israelis to return to previously evacuated areas in the West Bank and approval of new settlements in these areas.
Last week, the Israeli government approved plans to allocate more than 2.3 billion shekels (approximately $766 million) to establish new Jewish settlements and build access roads in the occupied West Bank, part of an accelerated effort to entrench the settlement enterprise and destroy the possibility of a future Palestinian state.
All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under International law, but settlers have successfully established dozens of unauthorized outposts in recent years and eventually secured Israeli government approvals.
Israel’s renewed settlement push, combined with the prolonged Gaza war and a rise in settler violence, has dramatically increased international criticism of Israel. Several countries, including the UK, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, have recently imposed new sanctions on groups and individual linked with the settler movement, along with travel bans on Ben Gvir and Smotrich in some European countries.
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