Le Monde newspaper said that a small group of settlers and extremists tried on Thursday to infiltrate the Palestinian territories and enter the Gaza Strip by force, to show their desire to re-settle the Strip, which was devastated by the war that has been going on for more than 200 days, but the police intercepted the group and dispersed it.

The newspaper's correspondent in Ashkelon, Jean-Philippe Remy, said that a group of cars stopped in a parking lot behind the Ashkelon train station in the northern Gaza Strip, in a dark and almost empty place, waiting for the gathering of dozens of vehicles carrying a group of West Bank settlers and the religious Zionist movement, who were seeking to forcefully enter Gaza.

This parking lot was one of the meeting points - according to the correspondent - to then move to another meeting point closer to Gaza, in the hope that the crowd of those aspiring to re-settle Gaza would advance towards the Strip on foot the next day, but the police set up roadblocks.

My dream is to live in Gaza

In the darkness, bonfires, tents and ghosts appear. The Hills Youth, an organization of extremist settlers who live in West Bank outposts, whisper plans for the next day. “Isn’t there somewhere we can go to get a better look at the explosions in Gaza?” one asks. .

The group, some of which came from settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank and some from cities in Israel, remains hesitant between two options - according to the author - either participating in forced entry into Gaza the next day, or joining another group working to prevent humanitarian aid trucks from entering the Strip. .

The group includes - according to the reporter - religious school students and hard-line Haredim who do not work, as well as some well-to-do people, and they all want to live in Gaza without sharing it “with the Arabs.”

“My absolute dream is to live in Gaza, but if it is not 100% Jewish, it will be useless,” says Yekutiel Epstein, an activist who is almost a miniature version of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

The writer pointed out that there are no leaders of the Israeli extreme right in this group, and this is due to the sanctions imposed by the United States and some European Union countries on those responsible for this movement, which came out tonight - according to the writer - in a semi-scout movement, expected to enjoy music in front of the fire. , roasted marshmallows and kosher sausages (Jewish-style sacrifices).

This militant movement sees the war that began in the Strip in retaliation for the October 7 attack, as a golden opportunity to advance their plan, and they judge Israeli political leaders to be too lukewarm or even traitors to their cause.

The next day, things do not go exactly as planned - as Le Monde's correspondent says - as police cars approach, so the group sets out under a scorching sun, with a temperature of 43 degrees.

At a roadblock, the police ask them to return to their homes. The group is dispersed without resistance, and if the most daring manage to regroup far away, they continue their way through the forbidden military zone, to the wall that surrounds Gaza, and there they stop, but they will return to the mission with regularity and patience. , according to the reporter.

Source: Le Monde