What Katz originally said was that Israel “when the time is right” will repopulate northern Gaza and rebuild settlements that were evacuated when Israel withdrew 20 years ago.
"We are deep inside Gaza, and we will never leave," he said in a recorded speech on site in the settlement of Beit El in the occupied West Bank, Haaretz and the Times of Israel report, among others.
We are there to protect, to prevent what happened.
The move contradicts both what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said several times - that Israel should withdraw from Gaza and not repopulate the area - and the terms of the current ceasefire agreement.
But according to a written statement from Katz shortly after the Beit El speech was released, Israel has no intention of establishing new settlements. Katz, who belongs to the ruling right-wing Likud party, spoke “solely in a security context.”
New Israeli settlements in Gaza are something that far-right ministers in Netanyahu's government, such as ultra-nationalist Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have advocated for over the past two years.
