On a Sunday in mid-July 2026, thousands of Israeli demonstrators, headed by senior cabinet ministers and sitting lawmakers, rallied near the boundary with the Gaza Strip to push for a dramatic policy shift: the re-establishment of Israeli Jewish settlements in the Palestinian enclave, 21 years after Israel pulled all its settlers and military forces out of the territory.
The demonstration was organized by Nachala, a hardline settler advocacy movement, which adopted the rallying slogan “Returning home after 21 years” in direct reference to Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, when the state dismantled all 21 existing Israeli settlements in the enclave. Organizers confirmed that at least 28 sitting ministers and members of Israel’s parliament took part in the event, including two of the most far-right figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Multiple legislators from Netanyahu’s own Likud party also joined the march.
Addressing the assembled crowd, Nachala’s founder and leader Daniella Weiss issued an explicit, controversial remark when responding to a common question about the future of Palestinian residents currently living in Gaza. “There will be no more Arabs in Gaza,” she declared, drawing applause from sections of the crowd.
Speaking to his supporters, Smotrich framed the push for resettlement as a correction of what he called a historic mistake. “We erased the disgrace of the expulsion in northern Samaria, and with God’s help, we will do the same here in the Gaza Strip,” he said, referencing the recent re-establishment of Israeli settlements in parts of the northern occupied West Bank that were also evacuated as part of the 2005 disengagement.
Ben Gvir doubled down on the demand for full Israeli control of Gaza, stating bluntly, “There will be Jewish settlements in all of Gaza.” He went on to echo common far-right talking points about encouraging the mass departure of Palestinians from the territory, adding, “Encourage voluntary immigration [of Palestinians to other countries], send those who need it to their countries. And we return home. Gaza is ours.”
Weiss summed up the core goal of the demonstration, telling attendees, “We are walking today to tell the government of Israel and show all the world that this land belongs to us.”
Prior to the scheduled march, the Israel Defense Forces had declared the entire area along the Gaza boundary a closed military zone in an attempt to restrict access to the border. Despite the order, hundreds of participants bypassed Israeli army roadblocks and reached locations within close proximity of the security fence that separates Israel from Gaza. As of initial reports, no demonstrators crossed into Gaza territory itself.
Many attendees brought family members, including children, to join the demonstration. Local reporting from the *Times of Israel* notes that many participants wore stickers printed with the phrase “Gaza is ours forever”, while a number of activists carried flags calling for the construction of a Third Temple on the site of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, a site that is the third holiest in Islam and is also the holiest site in Judaism.
In a post-rally statement, Nachala celebrated the turnout, writing, “Thank you to the tens of thousands who came as close as possible to the Gaza border with a clear call: we are settling Gaza now!”
Calls for resettling Gaza have grown dramatically louder among Israeli far-right political circles and settler organizations since Israel launched its large-scale military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, following the Hamas-led cross-border attack that killed roughly 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. The original text of this report references the campaign as a “genocide”, and notes that resettlement advocacy has intensified significantly over the course of the conflict.
Nachala has previously stated that more than 1,000 Israeli families are already “ready to actually settle in Gaza”, and claim that a large share of the Israeli public supports the return of Jewish settlements to the enclave.
Beyond Gaza, there are currently roughly 250 Israeli settlements spread across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, home to an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers. Under long-standing principles of international law, all Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories are classified as illegal, a position that has been repeatedly affirmed by the United Nations and most of the international community.