Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza: A Decade-Long Debate over Peace, Hamas and the Future of Israeli Settlements

In 2005, Israel made a momentous decision to withdraw thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, marking the end of a long-standing presence that had been protected by soldiers for decades. The Israeli government under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carried out this unilateral withdrawal as part of a peace plan proposed by the Middle East Quartet – an alliance comprising the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia.

Twenty years later, Israelis are engaged in heated debates over whether this decision paved the way for the Hamas-led attack on Israel that took place on October 7, 2023, and whether Israel should reestablish settlements in Gaza, a proposal put forth by some ministers within the current government.

Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories have been met with widespread international criticism, with the United Nations and numerous countries condemning them as violations of international law. Israel disputes these claims.

I was present as a young reporter during the evacuation of approximately 8,000 settlers from Gaza, which became known as Israel’s disengagement from Gaza. The scenes were chaotic – settler families wept, soldiers carried children out of homes, and children fled to the beach to escape them. While most residents of the 21 settlements complied with the official orders to evacuate by an August deadline, some refused, necessitating forceful removal by Israeli troops.

Following the completion of Israel’s withdrawal in September 2005, Palestinians celebrated, entering areas of Gaza for the first time in 38 years. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas planted a flag in the soil of an abandoned settlement and declared it “a day of happiness and joy.” However, there were also bitter emotions on display, as groups of Palestinians destroyed synagogues that Israeli authorities had left standing in a last-minute decision.

Esther Kaufman-Yarhi was 13 at the time, living in the settlement of Netzarim, one of the first established by Jewish families in the early 1970s. She remembers her life there as both idyllic and dangerous, with playgrounds, green spaces, and a close-knit community, but constant danger due to the surrounding conflict.

She describes the withdrawal as an expulsion, recalling how she stood in a circle of 13 soldiers, trying to explain to them the mistake they were making. Eventually, they carried her out, and the trauma from that experience has stayed with her ever since. Twenty years later, the longing only grows stronger.

The disengagement came after years of Palestinian attacks on Israeli settlements, most of which were carried out by Hamas. Just two years after the withdrawal, in 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza in a bloody takeover of its rival Fatah. In response, Israel imposed a blockade, limiting the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip, a measure that remains in place today.

Kaufman-Yarhi’s three brothers are now serving as soldiers in Gaza, near the ruins of her former home. She draws a direct line between the withdrawal and Hamas’ rise, stating that if Jews had remained in Gaza, she believes October 7 would not have occurred. Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Sharon’s closest aide at the time, held a different view.

Weisglass was instrumental in planning the withdrawal and saw it as an expression of Sharon’s belief that separation was the only solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In the long term, he argued, Israel’s national interest lay not in Gaza. Every casualty there – soldier or settler – was a waste.

Weisglass acknowledged that officials had always feared Hamas might eventually seize control of Gaza. However, he believed that keeping settlers there would have been far worse. “Without disengagement,” he said, “those thousands of Israelis in Gaza would have faced an October 7, not in 2023, but in 2008.”

A poll conducted by an Israeli newspaper this summer revealed that around half of Israelis support reestablishing settlements in Gaza. However, Weisglass maintains that such a move is currently unfeasible due to resource constraints.