Government ministers on Sunday joined thousands of settler activists in a march through a closed military zone to the Gaza border, flouting the orders of IDF officers at the scene in a show of support for Jewish settlement of the territory.

The “March of Thousands,” marking 21 years since Israel’s evacuation of its Gush Katif settlement bloc inside the Gaza Strip, drew leading politicians from the religious Zionist camp, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as politicians from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

According to event organizers in the Nachala settler group, a total of 28 ministers and coalition lawmakers attended the event. A spokeswoman called the support from more mainstream elements of the Israeli right “very significant”relative to previous attempted marches into the Strip.

The marchers did not appear to succeed in crossing into Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces declared the area surrounding Gaza a closed military zone ahead of the march, from Sunday at 8 a.m. until the same time on Monday.

Despite the order — and the hundreds of police officers and IDF soldiers dispatched to the scene — the marchers gathered at 5 p.m. near Zikim Beach, and within less than ten minutes, managed to pass the first army roadblock.

When marchers began to cross past the checkpoint, soldiers appeared visibly agitated but refrained from making arrests, and retreated to a point further down the route, erecting another roadblock.

This pattern repeated itself before marchers reached the Gaza border fence, with The Times of Israel witnessing participants skirt at least four roadblocks erected by the army as they inched closer and closer to the Strip, with some nearing the frontier in........

© The Times of Israel