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The right-wing extremist Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the “Victory Conference” in Jerusalem on January 28th

Photo: Debbie Hill / UPI Photo / IMAGO

Participants at a conference in Jerusalem called for Israeli repopulation of the Gaza Strip on Sunday. According to media reports, these included several Israeli ministers, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing conservative ruling party Likud.

At the “Victory Conference,” the right-wing extremist Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for not only a return of Israeli settlers to the coastal strip but also to “encourage an exodus (of Palestinians).” Only this could prevent another massacre like the one on October 7th, he argued. Spectators held a banner that read: "Only a transfer will bring peace."

Netanyahu allegedly considers the conference to be “harmful”

Netanyahu had described calls for the repopulation of the Gaza Strip as unrealistic. The news site ynet reported, citing a confidant of Netanyahu, that the head of government considered the conference to be “harmful.”

Israeli opposition leader Jair Lapid wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter, on Sunday evening: "The most damaging government in the history of the country has reached a new low this evening." was at the center of the national camp and is now being dragged along helplessly by radicals."

Sharp criticism from the Palestinian side

Calls for Israeli repopulation of the Gaza Strip have also been strongly condemned by the Palestinian side. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah spoke of a “meeting of colonialist terrorist organizations.”

“This meeting and its agenda once again reveal the true face of the right-wing Israeli government coalition,” the statement continued. The government rejects peace agreements and instead insists on "the occupation, colonialism and the apartheid regime."

Netanyahu's government is seen as directly responsible for "such inflammatory calls," it said. The international community and the USA are called upon to put pressure on Netanyahu so that the head of government stops this form of incitement.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and evacuated more than 20 Israeli settlements. For the United Nations, the Gaza Strip remains Israeli-occupied territory because it controls all entrances except for one border crossing. Israel maintains that the occupation ended with the withdrawal in 2005.

In 2007, the Islamist Hamas seized sole control of the Mediterranean coastal area after a bloody battle with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization. The two neighboring countries, Israel and Egypt, then tightened a blockade. Around 2.2 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip.

ktz/aeh/dpa