Thousands of Israelis, including ministers from the extreme right and allies of the occupation prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, participated in a conference organized by settlement organizations in Jerusalem, today, Sunday, to demand the restoration of settlement and settlement activity in the Gaza Strip. 

Twelve ministers from the Likud Party led by Netanyahu participated in the conference, which was held under the title “Settlements Bring Security and Victory - We Return to the Gaza Strip and North Samaria.” The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, also participated in the conference. . 

Fifteen MPs also participated in Parliament, representing the ruling government coalition in “Israel”, in addition to a large number of far-right activists and clerics, according to the Hebrew newspaper “Maariv”. 

Ben Gvir said in his speech during the conference: “If we do not want another October 7, we have to control the region.”

Ben Gvir called on the occupation government to “encourage voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza, repeating previous statements that called for a sharp rebuke from the United States and the international community.

Many participants carried weapons, while vendors outside the conference center were selling T-shirts reading “Gaza is part of the Land of Israel.”

Smotrich said in his speech that a large number of children who were evacuated from the settlements in Gaza returned as soldiers to fight in the war against the Hamas movement, noting that he stood against the government’s decision to evacuate the Jewish settlements in Gaza of settlers in the past.

He added in his speech, “We knew what this would bring and we tried to prevent it... Without settlements there is no security.”

Speakers at the conference, which was held at a conference center in Jerusalem and attended by members of Netanyahu’s party and several other ministers, called for turning “their dream into reality.”