‘A large area of Gaza will be surrounded to protect settlements,’ Defense Minister Israel Katz said. ‘In my vision and in due time, Nahal nucleus groups will be established in the northern part.’
Jpost
Defense Minister Israel Katz again reiterated his wish to establish Nahal nucleus groups to ‘protect settlements’ across northern Gaza on Thursday, only days after backtracking on similar comments following pressure by American officials.
Speaking to Kalman Libeskind at Bnei Akiva and Makor Rishon’s national education conference, Katz stressed that Israel ‘will never leave the Gaza Strip.
‘A large area of Gaza will be surrounded to protect settlements,’ Katz said. ‘In my vision and in due time, Nahal nucleus groups will be established in the northern part.’
US official decry Katz’s comments as ‘provocation’ of Arab nations
On Tuesday, Katz was forced to retract comments made earlier that day while speaking at the Jewish settlement of Beit El, in the West Bank, where he said that Israel ‘will establish Nahal nuclei in place of the communities that were evacuated.
‘We are in a period of practical sovereignty,’ Katz said. ‘There are opportunities here that have not existed for a very long time.’
These comments drew the ire of American officials at the US Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, which oversees the enforcement of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire deal.
‘The more Israel provokes, the less the Arab countries want to work with them,’ US officials told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday in response to Katz’s comment.
The backlash from American officials forced Israel’s defense minister to issue an English-language statement, later also released in Hebrew.
‘The defense minister’s remarks regarding the integration of Nahal nuclei in northern Gaza were made strictly in security-related contexts,’ Katz’s office said in a Tuesday afternoon statement. ‘The government has no intention at this time of establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip.’
Nahal nucleus programs, run under the auspices of the IDF’s Nahal Brigade, focus on combining community service with military service, usually in areas where the Israeli government seeks to encourage settlement.