In September 2005, Israeli forces pulled out of the Gaza Strip, with the final troops leaving via the al-Karara (Kisufim) and Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossings.
The withdrawal was seen on the time as a historic turning level, elevating hopes that just about 4 many years of navy occupation had come to an finish.
However as an alternative of relinquishing management, Israel repositioned itself on Gaza’s edges. It sealed off the territory by land, sea, and air, limiting motion via fence crossings, imposing limits on fishing waters, and maintaining watch from above.
On this visible explainer, Al Jazeera breaks down elements that led to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, maps the 21 unlawful settlements Israel dismantled throughout Gaza, and explores how their removing paved the way in which for deeper settlement growth throughout the occupied West Financial institution.
What led as much as disengagement?
The concept of the Gaza disengagement was primarily conceived and championed by Sharon.
A powerful supporter of Israeli settlements, Sharon started contemplating a withdrawal from Gaza within the early 2000s, notably after the outbreak of the second Intifada (2000-05).
The concept was motivated by the excessive value of defending remoted settlements, the demographic challenges of ruling over a big Palestinian inhabitants, and the strategic objective of consolidating Israel’s maintain on bigger unlawful settlements within the West Financial institution.
Regardless of going through intense opposition from inside his Likud occasion and throughout the political spectrum, Sharon pushed ahead the plan, framing it as a strategic transfer moderately than a concession.
The proposal, formally identified in Hebrew because the “Hitnatkut” (Disengagement), was introduced in December 2003 and finally accepted by the Knesset in October 2004, paving the way in which for the dismantling of 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 within the northern West Financial institution in 2005.
Timeline of Gaza disengagement
- June 6, 2004 – The Israeli cupboard votes 14-7 in favour of PM Sharon’s disengagement plan, setting the stage for withdrawal from Gaza.
- February 16, 2005 – The Knesset passes the Disengagement Implementation Legislation, offering the authorized framework for evacuations and compensation.
- August 15, 2005 – Israeli forces start dismantling settlements and eradicating settlers from Gaza.
- August 22, 2005 – All 21 settlements in Gaza are emptied, eradicating about 8,000 settlers.
- August 23-24, 2005 – Consideration shifts to the northern West Financial institution, the place 4 settlements (al-Ghanim, Homesh, Kadim, Sanur) are dismantled.
- September 12, 2005 – Navy jeeps and armoured bulldozers go away via the al-Karara and Beit Hanoon crossing factors, ending 38 years of steady Israeli navy presence within the Strip.
The place have been the 21 unlawful settlements in Gaza?
Following the Six-Day Struggle in 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza, the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, it intensified settlement constructing.
Israeli settlements are Jewish-only communities constructed on Palestinian land. Settlements are unlawful underneath worldwide legislation as a result of they contain transferring an occupying energy’s civilian inhabitants into occupied territory, which violates the Fourth Geneva Conference.
The primary settlement in Gaza after 1967 was Kfar Darom, arrange as a mixed military-agricultural outpost in 1970 and later transformed right into a civilian neighborhood. It turned a part of Gush Katif, the most important Israeli settlement within the Gaza Strip, positioned in southern Gaza, the place most settlements have been concentrated, notably within the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates.
Different settlements included Netzarim, simply south of Gaza Metropolis, and several other websites in northern Gaza. These settlements have been closely protected by the Israeli navy and surrounded by buffer zones that restricted Palestinian motion.
Over the following three many years, a complete of 21 settlements have been constructed, housing some 8,000 settlers.
Though settlers made up simply 0.6 % of Gaza’s inhabitants, they managed roughly 20 % of its land, affecting about 1.3 million Palestinians dwelling within the territory on the time.
Throughout Israel’s ongoing battle on Gaza, it constructed a number of corridors named after the settlements they related, together with Netzarim and Morag, two of the territory’s largest and most distinguished settlements.
Settlement growth throughout the West Financial institution
Since Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, settlement exercise within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem has accelerated. In the present day, there are between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers dwelling in no less than 250 settlements and outposts.
Many of those settlements have expanded whereas new outposts have been arrange, typically strategically positioned to manage roads, excessive floor, and key sources, successfully blocking Palestinians from accessing their land and limiting their freedom of motion.
Considered one of Israel’s newest settlement bulletins got here in August 2025, when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accepted the development of about 3,400 housing items in E1, between East Jerusalem and the unlawful settlement of Maale Adumim.
E1 is strategically important, because it kinds one of many final geographic hyperlinks between Bethlehem and Ramallah, and growth there may undermine plans for a territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
