TEL AVIV, July 31. /TASS/. The majority of Israelis support the idea of reviving the construction of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, according to the results of a poll published by the Israel Hayom newspaper.

The study was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the unilateral disengagement plan, when all Israeli army units withdrew from the Palestinian enclave in August-September 2005, and all Jewish settlements were evacuated. The poll showed that 76% of Israeli residents consider the disengagement a mistake. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed believe the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza increased the likelihood of the October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian radicals.

According to the poll, 52% of respondents believe that settlement activity in Gaza should resume immediately. Support for this idea is especially high among ultra-Orthodox Jews, with 83% in favor, followed by 67% of religious Jews. Among secular Israelis, 29% back a return to Gaza, while 20% of left-wing party voters support it.

 

Gaza Strip and Israeli settlements

 

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, the Gaza Strip came under Israeli control, and the construction of Israeli settlements was initiated there. In 2005, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan, Israel withdrew its troops completely from the enclave and evacuated all 21 settlements and their approximately 9,200 residents.

Construction of settlements continues on the West Bank of the Jordan River, which is considered one of the main obstacles to resolving the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In December 2016, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, which demanded that Israel cease settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories immediately. However, Tel Aviv has refused to comply with the resolution's provisions.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as retaliation for the aggressive actions taken by Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, launching air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria before starting a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave. The fighting continues to this day.

Commenting on the prospects for the post-war structure of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the possibility of resuming the construction of Jewish settlements there. Meanwhile, some of his colleagues in the Likud-National Liberal Movement party, as well as their ruling coalition partners from the far-right Religious Zionist and Jewish Power parties, have pushed for quickly resuming settlement activity in the Gaza Strip.