From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Radical activists ‘violently’ breach IDF checkpoint near Erez, enter Gaza before being stopped
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Radical activists participating in a protest by the Erez Crossing between northern Gaza and Israel “violently break through an IDF checkpoint” and cross into Gazan territory, the IDF says.
The activists made it some 500 meters inside Gaza before being stopped by IDF soldiers. They were eventually turned back by IDF soldiers and taken back to Israel, the IDF said.
In unclear circumstances, some settler activists also set up makeshift buildings apparently on the Gazan side of the Erez crossing but still on Israeli territory, the IDF says.
A group of settler activists violently breached a military checkpoint near the Erez border crossing and entered the Gaza Strip earlier today, the IDF says.
The IDF says troops worked to bring the protesters back into Israeli territory and hand them over to police.
Some of the… pic.twitter.com/kIXdkFoHoE
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 29, 2024
The Nachala settlement organization, which held a major conference at the end of January to rally support and momentum for its plans to re-settle Gaza, sent out images of the activists erecting a building and affixing a mezuzah to it in a short religious ceremony.
Nachala said the “settlement” had been called New Nisanit after the Nisanit settlement in the northern Gaza Strip that was part of the Gush Katif block of settlements evacuated in 2005 under the Disengagement plan.
