An invitation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party Likud has been circulating in recent days, reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Several high-ranking ministers within the government are expected to attend, including ultra-nationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu's far-right security minister and finance minister, respectively.
"Practical exercise"
Among other things, a so-called sukka will be built, a kind of leafy hut traditionally erected during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Behind the construction is Nachala, a radical Israeli settler organization notorious for establishing new so-called outposts on the West Bank.
In a statement, the organization claims that the event is not just a "theoretical conference", but a "practical exercise and preparation for renewed settlements in Gaza".
According to the statement, plans for a new colonization of Gaza are already well advanced, writes Haaretz, with the government's and the public's support.
Starve out Gaza
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated during the war year that the plan is not to establish new Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. But the more far-right elements in his government, including Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, have simultaneously called for tougher measures against civilians in Gaza and even praised settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank.
Over the past week, more and more reports have questioned what Israel's plan for Gaza really looks like. The fact that no humanitarian aid was allowed into northern Gaza during the first half of October has raised questions about whether Israel has launched the so-called "general plan", reports The Washington Post and others.
The controversial plan, designed by a former Israeli general, has the explicit goal of emptying Gaza of civilians and then starving out – or shooting – all Palestinians who stay behind.
Israel previously had a number of heavily guarded settlements in the Gaza Strip, but they were evacuated and abandoned on the initiative of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also from Likud, in 2005.
