Israeli Negev Development Minister Isaac Wasserlauf (social networking sites)
Maariv newspaper quoted the Israeli Minister of Negev Development, Isaac Wasserlauf, as saying, “We must enter Rafah and dissolve the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) brigades,” noting that complete victory is the return of settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Wasserlauf - from the far-right "Jewish Power" party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir - added that the settlement in Gaza is the punishment they should receive for what they did on October 7.
He added, "Without the Jewish settlement in Gaza, our soldiers would have been in vain."
Wasserlav's controversial statements are similar to those of extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as he previously called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, considering that the Palestinians of the Strip should be "encouraged" to immigrate to other countries.
Last January, the "Jewish Power" party organized a conference entitled "Victory Conference", to promote the restoration of settlement in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, in response to the events of October 7, ministers and representatives of the Knesset (Parliament), and about 20 ministers. Israelis, some of whom are from the ruling Likud Party led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
On more than one occasion, Netanyahu stated that re-settlement in the Gaza Strip at the present time is unrealistic.
In the June 1967 war, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, then withdrew from it and dismantled its settlements there in 2005.
The United Nations considers Israeli settlement in the occupied territories illegal, and calls on Israel to end it to no avail, warning that it undermines the chances of addressing the conflict in accordance with the principle of a two-state solution, Palestinian and Israeli.
Source: Al Jazeera