Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz pledges to remain in Gaza and build new military-agricultural outposts, defying US-led ceasefire plans for withdrawal.
JERUSALEM: Defence Minister Israel Katz has vowed that Israel will never leave the Gaza Strip and pledged to establish new outposts in its north.
His remarks, made at an event in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, directly challenge the next phases of a US-brokered ceasefire which envisages an Israeli withdrawal.
“We are deep inside Gaza, and we will never leave Gaza — there will be no such thing,” Katz said in a video published by Israeli news site Ynet.
He added that Israel is there “to protect, to prevent what happened (from happening again)”.
Katz specifically vowed to establish “Nahal outposts” in northern Gaza, referring to military-agricultural settlements.
These would be in place of Israeli communities evacuated during Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the territory in 2005.
“We will do this in the right way and at the appropriate time,” he stated.
The comments were immediately criticised by former minister and chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.
He accused the government of “acting against the broad national consensus, during a critical period for Israel’s national security”.
Eisenkot wrote on X that while the government votes for the US-brokered peace plan, “with the other hand it sells fables about isolated settlement nuclei in the (Gaza) Strip”.
The Trump administration’s plan involves an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the establishment of an interim governing authority.
It also includes the deployment of an international stabilisation force and the demilitarisation of Gaza, which Hamas has refused.
The fragile ceasefire is currently holding as mediators push for the implementation of these next phases.
Last Thursday, several Israelis entered Gaza in defiance of army orders to hold a symbolic flag-raising ceremony.
They were calling for the reoccupation and resettlement of the Palestinian territory.
