Bill Seeks to Repeal Ban on Israelis Entering Gaza

A new bill from MK Limor Son Har-Melech will go before the Knesset’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, aiming to formally cancel the Disengagement Law clauses that still bar Israeli citizens from entering, staying in, or moving around the Gaza Strip. The proposal would remove from Israel’s statute books the legal ban on Jews and Israelis entering Gaza and would make a Israeli presence there lawful.

The initiative follows Son Har-Melech’s earlier legislative effort, together with allies from the Land of Israel lobby in the Knesset, to amend the Disengagement Law in early 2023 for northern Samaria. That move led to the return of the settlements of Homesh and Sa-Nur to the settlement map, and current efforts are still underway to renew Israeli presence in Ganim and Kadim.

The new bill seeks to apply the same legal principle to Gaza and to eliminate the movement and residency restrictions that have been in place since 2005. Son Har-Melech said the time has come, more than 20 years after the withdrawal from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, to complete what she called a historical injustice.

She added that the October 7 attacks showed that withdrawals and expelling Jews do not bring security. In her words, the bill is a clear statement that there are no areas in the Land of Israel from which Jews are barred, and it is “a first step” toward fully correcting the disengagement and restoring Jewish settlement to the places from which residents were uprooted.