Nearly half of Israel’s government joins march vowing Gaza settlements
Right-wing Israeli activists gather near the Gaza perimeter fence, during the ‘March of the Thousands’, 19 July 2026
Oren Ziv reports in +972 on 20 July 2026:
The “March of the Thousands” could hardly be called a demonstration or a protest. Those are actions usually taken in opposition to the government, or demanding something from outside of it. But when several thousand right-wing activists marched to the Gaza fence on Sunday, calling for Israel to re-establish settlements in the Strip, they did so with the participation of almost half of the government and under the auspices of the police — even though the army had declared the area a closed military zone, making it an arrestable offense to enter.
The official reason for the march was to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance settlement construction in Gaza, which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promised in June would happen “as soon as the prime minister gives his approval.” But the event also intended to demonstrate who is in charge, who stands above the law and can get what they want — as they have already done in East Jerusalem and the West Bank — with or without the prime minister.
The marchers, many of whom had been bused in from settlements in the occupied West Bank, began at Zikim Beach just north of the Gaza Strip. A few hundred meters from the beach, military police had erected a checkpoint, and soldiers, with deadpan seriousness, presented the participants with a closed military zone order and tried to force their vehicles to turn back.