DayofPal—Several Israelis defied a military ban on Thursday by entering the Gaza Strip, where they raised the Israeli flag at the site of a former settlement and called for the restoration of Israeli communities in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Photos circulated by right-wing Israeli social media accounts showed about 20 men, women and children gathered around a flag planted on an empty plot of land.
The images were said to have been taken in Kfar Darom, a former kibbutz in central Gaza that was dismantled during Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the enclave in 2005, along with 20 other settlements.
Since the pullout, fringe and right-wing groups in Israel have repeatedly advocated for the return of settlements to Gaza. Those demands intensified after the war started on October 2023.
In the aftermath of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, several Israeli officials also publicly called for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and for Israel to reassert control over the enclave.
The Israeli army said the group that entered Gaza on Thursday was escorted back into Israel. It added that “dozens” of other people were stopped from crossing at another border point, though some managed to breach security barriers before being intercepted.
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