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ISRAELI SETTLERS CROSS INTO GAZA, BUILD ‘SYMBOLIC’ OUTPOST  
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Oren Ziv
March 1, 2024
972 Magazine
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_ Dozens of settlers and right-wing activists stormed Erez Crossing,
building two wooden structures while soldiers and police stood aside.
_

Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an 'outpost'
inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv

 

Over 100 Israelis stormed Erez Crossing at the northern tip of Gaza
yesterday afternoon in the most significant attempt to re-establish
Jewish settlements in the Strip since the war began. A small number
managed to cross several hundred meters into Gaza before being
intercepted by Israeli soldiers, while around 20 others entered the
area between the two walls comprising the barrier that encages the
Strip. There, they established an “outpost” in the style seen
commonly in the West Bank, building for several hours without the army
or police interfering. 

From the first moments of the war, it was clear that right-wing
Israeli politicians and settler leaders sensed an opportunity to
radically shift the status quo in Israel-Palestine. For months, calls
to resettle Gaza — often in the same breath as calling to expel the
Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents — have been getting
louder, not least at a major conference in Jerusalem in January at
which senior officials laid out their plans
[[link removed]].
In parallel, right-wing activists — mostly youth — have been
coming regularly to the Gaza fence to demonstrate against the entry of
humanitarian aid into the Strip. Yesterday’s action, however, marked
a new peak in their activities. 

At around 2 p.m., activists began gathering at a train station in the
southern Israeli city of Sderot, close to Gaza. At that initial
meeting point — for what was ostensibly a “protest” honoring
Harel Sharvit, a settler who was killed while serving in Gaza — the
mood was calm, even sleepy. A police car drove past, unmoved by the
scene. From there, the activists drove in private cars toward the Erez
Checkpoint, the only civilian crossing point between Israel and the
Gaza Strip, which has been defined by the Israeli army as a “closed
military zone” since it was briefly taken over by Palestinians amid
the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel. 

As they approached the checkpoint, the activists got out of their cars
and began marching. At this point, they were met by another convoy of
vehicles full of “hilltop youth
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settlers who regularly establish new outposts across the West Bank and
attack Palestinians to force them off their land
[[link removed]]. At
least two of them were armed with rifles of the kind used by the
military, and they brought construction materials to build an
outpost. 

At a certain point, some of them started running toward the checkpoint
and managed to cross it unhindered, with the few soldiers present
unable to stop them. In the space between the two walls enclosing the
Strip about 20 of them began erecting two structures using the
materials they had brought: wooden planks and poles, and iron sheets
for the roofs. Meanwhile, a handful of settler youth ran further
inside Gaza, again unhindered by soldiers.

[Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez
Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Israeli
settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February
29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing,
February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

On the soldiers’ radios, the message came through that a number of
people had crossed into Gaza, and military jeeps and even two tanks
were sent to look for them. About half an hour later, a military jeep
brought the youth back to the Israeli side of the crossing, without
arresting them. They exited the jeep to applause from the other
activists, joining the bigger group as they chanted, “It’s
ours.”

For several hours, those who had crossed into the space between the
two walls continued building the outpost — which they named New
Nisanit, after one of the settlements in Gaza that was evacuated as
part of the 2005 “disengagement
[[link removed]]” — without
interference. As in the West Bank, the soldiers stood nearby and
provided protection, rather than trying to stop them.

‘This is our country’

Amiel Pozen and David Remer, both 18, were two of the settlers who
managed to cross around 500 meters into Gaza. After being picked up
and dropped back at the checkpoint by the Israeli army, the pair spoke
to +972. 

“There was no fear of being inside [Gaza], the Holy One is with us
and the IDF is here helping us,” Remer said. “We came here
[because] we wanted to go home. I live in a community of deportees
from Gush Katif [the Jewish settlement bloc inside Gaza that was
evacuated in 2005], and we wanted to go back. After everything that
happened, there’s no doubt that we have to go back. 

“The feeling is very good, like coming home,” Remer continued.
“It is ours. The Holy One, blessed be He, said it is ours. If we
will not be there, we know what will be there.”

[Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in
the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Israeli
settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence
near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the
fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Pozen added: “We have come to represent the entire public, the
Jewish people. We want to return to the whole Land of Israel, to all
parts of our Holy Land. There are no ‘two states for two peoples’
— that’s not right. The people of Israel belong to the Land of
Israel.”

Regarding the possibility of persuading the government to support
resettling Gaza, Pozen said: “I would like the government to
understand [what] the majority of the people already understood: We
are here. It is ours. There is no political or international obstacle.
We don’t need to consider anyone else. It is an internal matter. We
need to go to Gaza, destroy all the terror there, and build there
ourselves.”

Another of the settlers intercepted by the army after crossing further
into Gaza showed his friends a photo he took on his phone of a
strawberry plant in a Palestinian field, saying: “Look how beautiful
the country is.”

Over the course of the evening, settler youth continued to bypass the
army and run to the outpost. Many of them did so by crawling through a
hole in the fence that was likely created during the events of October
7, until soldiers brought a bulldozer to close it with dirt.

Many of the youth were from the same organizations that have spent the
past several weeks attempting — often successfully — to block
humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In their eyes, there is a
connection between withholding aid to Palestinians and re-establishing
Jewish settlements in Gaza: both are seen as a means toward achieving
a decisive “victory.”

[Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction
materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Israeli
settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to
the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction
materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Mechi Fendel, a right-wing activist from Sderot, told 972: “We came
here to declare that the day after this war is over, we must settle,
we must spread Jewish towns all over the Gaza Strip. Because without
that, it’s going to become a hornet’s nest. You can’t leave a
vacuum. There’s no reason why we want that to happen again. I live
one kilometer away from the Gaza Strip. I can’t have terrorists as
neighbors — and they showed their true colors on October 7.”

Regarding the construction of the outpost near the fence, she
explained: ”It’s a symbolic act, showing that we built two houses.
They came in with these big pieces of wood and they actually built two
structures here in the Gaza Strip. Of course it’s symbolic because
they’re not going to stay here tonight. But the point is this is
where we have to be. This is our country. We cannot let a full strip
of land be unsettled.”

And what would happen to the Palestinians in Gaza if Jewish
settlements were to be established? “If they’re willing to take
Israeli jurisdiction, if they’re willing to have us come in and
control their education system and help them financially, then let
them stay if they’re peaceful,” Fendel said. “I so far haven’t
found a Palestinian that’s peaceful. As I described, Palestinian
workers [who worked inside Israel] for tens of years became terrorists
in a second.

“I think that the government, when it sees that we are behind them,
that the people want this, the government will be for it,” she
continued. “Because the government also doesn’t want a hornet’s
nest of terrorists cropping up. I think that if we have the people and
the willingness and we show that we’re there, we’re brave, and we
want to do it, the government will help us.”

‘First the soldiers stormed in, now the settlers’

The dynamics were reminiscent of typical scenes in the West Bank, with
settlers being given freedom of action while the soldiers stood idly
by — despite being inside a closed military zone and some of them
even entering a combat zone. Some of the soldiers could be seen
hugging the activists. One soldier told +972 that the soldiers support
the activists and that the problem is “the media that wants action,
to film soldiers beating Jews.”

[Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction
materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Israeli
settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to
the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction
materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Even though soldiers have the authority to detain Israeli citizens —
and have detained journalists and other civilians who approached the
fence in recent months — they invariably avoid detaining settlers
who break the law in the West Bank, and this was the case yesterday
too. One of the activists, who told +972 that he was an off-duty
soldier and wore his military weapon over civilian clothes, said he
left the area early because soldiers warned him they would “kick
[him] out of the army.”

The soldiers spoke calmly with the activists, including the well-known
Kahanist Baruch Marzel
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stage. “It’s like the soldiers who stormed [into Gaza] — now
they [the settler youth] are storming,” Marzel said to one of the
soldiers. 

Later on, when they were leaving, Marzel told +972 that the action
reminded him of the “first settlement in Sebastia” — a village
near Nablus in the West Bank where, some 50 years ago, a group of
settlers from the Gush Emunim movement attempted to establish a Jewish
settlement and defied the government’s attempts to evict them until
it relented. He added that the main issue for him is not settling Gaza
but deporting the Palestinians to “all the countries that support
them.” 

A security official present at the scene expressed to +972 his
displeasure that the activists had been able to cross the checkpoint
with such ease. “If they managed to enter Gaza, that means
[Palestinians] can also enter in the opposite direction,” he said. 

Police officers who arrived at the scene acted with the same
indifference as the soldiers. They seemed to be in no hurry to
intervene, and initially arrested only one protester. After sunset,
around 7 p.m., some of the activists began to leave, and the rest were
subsequently dispersed by police. A total of nine people were arrested
and taken to a police station last night. 

In response to an inquiry from +972 last night, a police spokesperson
stated: “Israel Police forces were called in the afternoon to near
the Erez Crossing, after protesters arrived and a handful of them
crossed the fence into the Gaza Strip in violation of a general’s
order. In light of the real danger to the protesters’ lives, the
police forces were forced to operate within the territory of the Gaza
Strip, where some of the protesters confronted them and refused to
leave, which left the police no choice but to arrest nine of them for
the offenses of violating a general’s order and failing [to obey] a
police officer.

“The protesters were brought to the police station for questioning,
at the end of which it will be decided which of them will be brought
before the Court of Appeal tomorrow for a discussion of his case.”
Police did not respond to another request for information today about
whether those arrested were charged, but it seems they were released
last night.

_Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a
founding member of the Activestills photography collective._

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