Israelis March to Gaza Border Demanding Settlement Re-establishment

Thousands of Israelis, including settlers and right-wing activists, marched toward the Gaza border on Sunday, calling for the government to re-establish Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory. The demonstrators gathered near the border fence, waving Israeli flags and urging a return to Gaza, from which Israel evacuated all settlers in 2005.

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We are walking today to tell the government of Israel and show all the world that this land belongs to us and that Gaza really belongs to us and that we want to go back there.

"We are walking today to tell the government of Israel and show all the world that this land belongs to us and that Gaza really belongs to us and that we want to go back there," said participant Daniel Sellem, who previously lived in Gaza before the 2005 disengagement. He expressed hope that the march would pressure the government to authorize a return to the territory.

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We lived there before they got us out in 2005.

Another participant, Yechiel Greenblum, described the event as "just the beginning" of a campaign to restore Israeli communities in Gaza. He asserted that "there is no reason" Jews could not return to settle northern Gaza, adding that the 2005 withdrawal was temporary. "We are going back," he stated.

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We are trying to put pressure on them, and I have a big hope that it will work and that we will go back and live there as soon as possible.

Previous marches have similarly aimed to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to re-establish settlements in Gaza. Much of the territory has been rendered uninhabitable by more than two years of war, though Israeli forces currently control over 60 percent of Gaza, where daily violence persists despite a ceasefire with Hamas.

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JUST THE BEGINNING