Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven cabinet ministers marched on Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most Right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition.
The mass rally also threatened to further raise tensions that have been heightened by days of unrest across the region over a contested Jerusalem holy site. In new violence, Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, while a 48-year-old Israeli woman died of wounds sustained in an attack last week that killed two of her daughters.
Monday’s march took place in the northern West Bank — the scene of repeated violence in recent months.
Thousands of Israeli police and army forces were reportedly deployed to secure the march, which added to the already combustible atmosphere that has accompanied the overlap of major Jewish and Muslim holy days.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks surrounding the Jerusalem shrine.
The march to Eviatar, an unauthorised settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the previous Israeli government in 2021, was being led by hardline ultranationalist Jewish settlers. Daniella Weiss, another settler leader, told Kan public radio that the ministers’ participation in the march could be a “therapy for the government to free yourselves from the dictates of the US and Europe” concerning the West Bank settlement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the most religious and ultranationalist government in Israel’s history. Several members of his cabinet, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — both West Bank settlers — and at least 20 members of Knesset were taking part in the march.
Speaking at the march, Ben-Gvir said that “We are here to say that the Israeli nation is strong” and that “we are here and will remain here”.
Visits to Eviatar have been officially banned by the military since its evacuation, but that prohibition has been loosely enforced in recent months. Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said the military approved Monday’s march, saying it would be “highly monitored and highly protected”.
