A large march and rally close to the Gaza border is being planned by the Nachala settlement movement for Independence Day on Wednesday, under the banner of “The People of Israel are Returning to Gaza.”
The event will see members of Nachala settlement cadres, created to establish new settlements in Gaza at a moment’s notice, march towards Gaza from Kibbutz Mefalsim, together with other activists, some bereaved families and discharged soldiers.
Similar events staged by Nachala in the past have resulted in efforts by some activists to break into Gaza and set up outposts there, although all such attempts have been thwarted by the IDF.
The latest such effort came in December 2025, when two of Nachala’s Gaza settlement cadres entered the strip and planted Israeli flags at the sites of the former settlements of Morag and Kfar Darom.
Last Wednesday, the heads of the Nachala organization, Daniella Weiss and Zvi Elimelech Sharbaf, conducted what they called “a tour of the northern part of the Gaza Strip,” and sent back a video of part of their tour. It is not clear if they actually managed to enter the territory or merely viewed it from near the border. They claimed to be just 200 meters from the former Israeli settlement of Elei Sinai, which was located in Gaza’s northern edge, on the border with Israel.
“We will bring a few caravans, we will march not [even] 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and here is the Elei Sinai settlement,” Weiss said excitedly in the video.
Nachala is a radical organization that has helped establish illegal settlements in the West Bank and has advocated for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population of Gaza ever since the October 7, 2023, atrocities.
According to Nachala, the organization is defining the upcoming Independence Day event as a “national, state event seeking to connect the heroism of the fighters on the ground and the public demand to renew the Jewish hold on the Gaza Strip as a Zionist and defensive response.”
The organization has been working with several MKs to drum up interest and participation in the upcoming march.
Far-right MK Limor Son Har Melech of Otzma Yehudit issued a video message on her social media accounts and Nachala’s calling for members of the public to attend the rally on Independence Day, saying that Nachala was “inviting everyone to celebrate in the Gaza Strip,” She called herself for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
“Everyone already knows the real and only answer to terrorism and a murderous enemy: conquest, expulsion and settlement,” said Son Har Melech.
אמש בסיור בדרום יחד עם צבי אלימלך שרבף ראינו עד כמה חבל עזה קרוב אלינו, ואני רוצה להזכיר שוב את דברי שר הביטחון כץ על הקמת גרעיני נחל במרחב התוחמת הצפונית.
הדבר אפשרי לביצוע מיידי, מדוע זה מתעכב? pic.twitter.com/0StejBIWMs
— דניאלה וייס ???? Daniella Weiss (@Daniell04520035) April 16, 2026
“Only strong Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip will bring the security that we are hoping for,” she declared.
Another member of Knesset who has promoted the march is MK Osher Shekalim of the Likud party.
“We will convey the message that it is our right to settle in the entire Land of Israel, including Gaza,” Shekalim said in his own video message promoting the Nachala event.
“We will also convey the message that settlement is the solution, it is our security, and it is, God willing, also our total victory over our enemies.”
