Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday that Israel is “closer than ever” to reoccupying the Gaza Strip and rebuilding settlements, a move deemed illegal under international law.
"We are closer than ever to rebuilding Gush Katif,” Smotrich said at a conference in Yad Binyamin, central Israel.
Gush Katif, a bloc of 21 settlements in southern Gaza, was dismantled under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2005 disengagement plan, which also saw the evacuation of four settlements in the northern West Bank.
"Where there are no settlements, there is no army; and where there is no army, there is no security,” the extremist minister said.
Gaza is "an inseparable part of the Land of Israel,” he claimed, calling for a larger and more expansive return than before 2005.
