Several Israeli settlers enter Gaza, try to plant trees before being detained by IDF
Army says all suspects captured, handed over to police; ‘We came to plant for the Jewish settlement in Gaza. All of the land of Israel is ours,’ activist says in social media clip
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Several Israeli settler activists crossed into the Gaza Strip Wednesday night in an attempt to plant trees as a precursor to establishing new Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory. The activists were detained by IDF troops.
According to the IDF, the civilians were monitored the entire time by soldiers operating surveillance cameras.
Troops stationed in the area captured the suspects, brought them back to Israel, and handed them over to the police for further questioning, the army added.
“The IDF emphasizes that any entry into a combat zone is prohibited, endangers civilians, and disrupts the activity of IDF troops in the area,” the military said.
During their brief incursion into Gaza, the settlers posted a video on social media showing a man declaring he was inside the Strip, while holding a sapling he said he intended to plant in the area.
“We came to plant for the Jewish settlement in Gaza. All of the Land of Israel is ours,” he said.
עשרות ישראלים נכנסו הערב בחסות החשיכה לרצועת עזה – במטרה ליישב מחדש את יישובי גוש קטיף.
צה"ל הצליח להוציא את מרביתם והודיע כי השיב אותם ארצה, אך לטענת המארגנים: יש קבוצה שעדיין מצליחה להישאר בשטח ולא מצליחים לפנות אותה. pic.twitter.com/KxHNBYqni2
— ינון שלום יתח (@inon_yttach) December 10, 2025
While the IDF said it detained all suspects who crossed the border, the settler activist group that organized the incursion claimed that one party was able to slip past the army’s detection and remained inside the Gaza Strip, though the organization offered no proof to back up the claim.
Israeli civilians have on several occasions attempted to enter Gaza since the start of the war — often pro-settlement activists seeking to reclaim communities in the Strip evacuated by Israel in 2005.
The Israeli side of the Gaza border barrier is currently unprotected in some areas, as the IDF is widely deployed deeper within the Strip.
The most recent high profile attempt to enter Gaza and establish Jewish settlement was during the Sukkot holiday in October, when dozens of right-wing settler activists, supported by a far-right MK, set up an encampment on the enclave’s border, demanding the government allow them to celebrate the Sukkot holiday on the ruins of the former settlement of Nisanit inside the Strip.
According to the radical settlement movement Nachala, 11 families from a cadre dubbed “Gaza Pioneers” established the encampment, together with dozens of settler youths, and erected several Sukkahs, the temporary outdoor huts used during the holiday. Nachala has campaigned for the establishment of Jewish settlements inside Gaza since the early months of the war against Hamas.
The movement’s ideology has support in the government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called the enclave an “inseparable part” of Israel, and other ministers and lawmakers have been urging the leadership to impose military rule over it and reestablish settlements in the Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously ruled out reestablishing settlements, though several of his coalition ministers and lawmakers of his own Likud party have touted the idea and even attended pro-settlement marches near Gaza organized by Nachala.
The Times of Israel Community.