Israeli settlers’ leaders urge Gaza-style military operations in Palestine refugee camps

Senior Israeli settlers’ leaders have urged the security cabinet to evacuate residents of Palestinian refugee camps and other areas that they decide are strongholds of armed groups, the Times of Israel has reported.

The settlers’ demands include large-scale demolitions and military operations similar to those carried out in Gaza, which they described as a strategy to combat armed Palestinian groups “exactly as we have done in the Gaza Strip.”

In a letter addressed to the Israeli security cabinet, Yisrael Ganz, the head of the Yesha Council, along with 14 Israeli mayors of settlement authorities and regional councils, also proposed limiting Palestinian movement on major West Bank roads due to security concerns.

This appeal comes after Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, directed the Israeli military to increase defences for West Bank settlements and main roads. Katz cited potential threats from “extremist Islamic terror agents,” suggesting that they could be inspired by the recent success of Syrians in overthrowing the Assad regime.

In August, while serving as foreign minister, Katz advocated for the “temporary relocation” of Palestinians in the West Bank during a large-scale “anti-terror” operation in the northern part of the occupied territory.

Israel has faced allegations of forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza, with extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the ongoing refusal to allow most displaced residents to return to their homes. Prominent far-right Israeli politicians, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have similarly pushed for policies aimed at “encouraging” Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza.

Moreover, in their letter, settlers’ leaders claimed that increasing violence in the West Bank requires decisive and aggressive measures. “The population living in zones identified with terrorism, with a focus on ‘refugee’ camps and known terror complexes, should be moved,” they said. “After moving the population, the terrorism [sic] infrastructure should be dismantled exactly as we have done in the Gaza Strip, meaning: any incriminated building to be destroyed, every terrorist to be taken out. The form of battle, from the incursion to the ground operation, will exert effective pressure and extract a significant price from the terrorist [sic] organisations.”

The letter did not specify where displaced Palestinians would be relocated to or what measures would follow the proposed military operations. “This is the time to abandon a defensive posture and adopt an aggressive, effective, and lethal offensive in Judea and Samaria,” said the fanatical settlers, whose very presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal under international law.

Critics of the occupation state point out that moving citizens into areas occupied through armed conflict is a war crime. They also remind the apartheid state that resistance to a military occupation is legitimate under international law, and not “terrorism” which Israel and its allies in the West claim. Israel was built upon the terrorism of Zionist militias in the run up to and since the 1948 Nakba.

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