On Sunday, thousands of Israelis—among them settlers and right-wing activists—marched toward the Gaza border, urging the government to revive Israeli settlements in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, according to an AFP journalist on the scene.

The march highlights a sustained push by right-wing groups to reverse Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza, a move that remains deeply contentious in Israeli society.

Gathering near the border, the demonstrators then proceeded in large numbers toward the fence that overlooks northern Gaza, where Israeli security forces had been deployed to block their advance.

AFP footage showed marchers waving Israeli flags as soldiers and police blocked their access to the restricted area.

“We are walking today to tell the government of Israel and show all the world that this land belongs to us and that Gaza really belongs to us and that we want to go back there,” said participant Daniel Sellem.

“We lived there before they got us out in 2005.”

Sellem said the march was intended to push the government to authorize a return to Gaza, more than two decades after Israel evacuated all settlements from the territory under a 2005 disengagement plan.

“We are trying to put pressure on them, and I have a big hope that it will work and that we will go back and live there as soon as possible,” Sellem said.

Another participant, Yechiel Greenblum, said the event marked what he viewed as “just the beginning” of a campaign to restore Israeli communities in the coastal territory.

“We are having a big march back to the Gaza Strip, back to where Jews lived for hundreds, thousands of years,” he said, adding that the 2005 withdrawal had been temporary. “We are going back.”

Greenblum contended that there was “no reason” Jews could not return to settle northern Gaza.

Previous marches have likewise sought to pressure the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, to re-establish settlements in the territory — much of which has been rendered uninhabitable by more than two years of war.

Israeli forces currently control more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, where daily violence continues despite a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.

The demonstration comes amid heightened tensions following the devastating war in Gaza, which has left large parts of the territory in ruins. While the Israeli government has not officially endorsed the settlement movement, some far-right coalition members have expressed support for reoccupying parts of Gaza. Any return to settlement would likely face fierce international opposition and complicate efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire.