As Tisha B'Av draws near and the anniversary of the 2005 Gaza disengagement approaches, Israel confronts a defining moment. The nation can persist with indecision and limited steps or finally act on what history and safety require by reestablishing Jewish settlements in Gaza.

This approach is not extreme. It forms the essential reply to the atrocities of Oct. 7. Gaza belongs to the Land of Israel, and reviving Jewish life there represents the sole method to impose a tangible and enduring cost on Hamas for its actions.

The 2005 removal from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, which started right after Tisha B'Av, was presented to Israelis as a courageous move for peace. It instead proved one of the gravest blunders in the nation's past.

The scenes from the evacuation of Gaza's Jewish residents stay vivid in memory: 21 prosperous Jewish settlements, housing over 8,000 settlers, were dismantled.

Their residences were razed, their synagogues left empty and later defiled, and their acclaimed greenhouses, which contributed notably to Israel's farm exports, were transferred to those who would soon turn Gaza into a hub for attacks.

In 2005, Israel displaced Jews under the banner of peace. More than 20 years on, the nation continues to mourn the casualties of that false hope.

Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 and converted it into an Iranian outpost. This led to thousands of rockets aimed at Israel, multiple conflicts, and ultimately the savagery of Oct. 7, 2023. When Jews departed Gaza, violence and ruin filled the void.

Gaza's Jewish Legacy

Jewish settlements flourished in Gaza during the Second Temple era and the periods that followed. Archaeological finds, such as an ancient synagogue mosaic showing King David, confirm a thriving Jewish community there in Byzantine times.

Gaza forms part of the historic Jewish homeland. Its Jewish roots extend over three thousand years. The name Gaza, or Azza in Hebrew, resonates in sacred writings. It falls within the area promised to Abraham's descendants in Genesis. It served as a site where Samson battled the Philistines and where Jewish rule and settlement endured through the times of judges, kings, and Hasmoneans.

In subsequent eras, Gaza hosted notable rabbis and thinkers, among them Rabbi Israel Najara (1555-1625), the famed poet and writer of the Shabbat hymn Kah Ribon Olam, who acted as Gaza's chief rabbi.

A modest yet active Jewish group remained there into the 20th century, involved in commerce and farming, until the 1929 Arab riots compelled them to leave and British Mandatory officials barred their return.

Thus, the Jewish return after 1967, which peaked with the thriving Gush Katif communities, was no colonial act. It restored an ancient Jewish foothold.

The Gush Katif settlers followed the pattern Jews have long upheld. They turned arid land productive, constructed schools and yeshivas, raised families, and lived with pride. They showed that Jewish settlement and farm progress could succeed even amid severe security challenges.

The argument for reviving Jewish life in Gaza today rests on two realities.

First, Gaza is integral to the Land of Israel. No external pressure or altered history can erase this core truth.

Second, resettlement offers the strongest way to exact a real price from Hamas.

A Hollow Triumph

Following the horrors of Oct. 7, the killing of over 1,200 individuals, the assault and torment of civilians, and the seizure of hostages from infants to seniors, empty claims of victory lack substance.

Thousands of Israelis who endured Oct. 7 merit more than assurances that such an attack will not recur. They merit measures that render repetition impossible.

A lasting Jewish presence in Gaza would build strategic depth, strengthen Israel's hold on the area, enhance intelligence efforts, and block Hamas from regrouping.

Hamas initiated Oct. 7 thinking mass killing would erode Israel's determination and ultimately expel Jews from their land. If Israel only destroys tunnels and removes fighters before pulling back again, Hamas will portray the violence as successful.

Yet if the outcome of its assault is the revival of Jewish communities in Gaza, the signal will be clear: Every attack on Israel will bolster rather than weaken the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

Hamas's aggression must therefore incur a territorial penalty that cannot be undone.

Resettlement would guarantee that Hamas suffers not merely through the ruin of its terror networks but via the permanent return of Jewish life to the land it aimed to purge of Jews. This amounts to deterrence by presence.

Each new residence built in Gaza would symbolize Jewish endurance and reject Hamas's creed of destruction.

The notion of resettling Gaza, once viewed as marginal, is gaining wider acceptance. An increasing number of Knesset members and ministers have voiced support for restoring Jewish communities there.

Among the public, support outpaces political leaders. Thousands of Israelis plan to march this Sunday to advocate a return to Gaza. Their stance is straightforward: The errors of 2005 must not recur.

These Israelis reject the idea that Jewish lives hold little value or that any part of the ancestral homeland must stay closed to Jews forever.

The timing aligns deliberately.

The period falls in the Nine Days, when the destruction of the Temples on Tisha B'Av and the ensuing chain of exile and disaster are mourned.

Tisha B'Av is a day of grief, yet it also holds promise. It recalls that from deep loss can arise renewal and reconstruction. Tradition holds that the Messiah emerges amid the ruins of Tisha B'Av.

Jewish history shows repeatedly that renewal starts when Jews regain the resolve to return to sites from which they were expelled.

What finer reply to a self-inflicted tragedy than to correct it? And what stronger tribute to the victims of Oct. 7 than to ensure the land that produced their killers can never again function as a terror base? The victims of Oct. 7 cannot be restored. Yet their loss can permanently alter the region's map.

The government must now convert military gains into lasting strategic success. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds the chance to correct one of the most serious strategic missteps in Israel's recent past. He and his ministers must act on it.

The usual objections, such as outside pressure, legal issues, and internal politics, lose weight after the toll Israel has already endured.

Decisive steps do not equal rashness. They reflect duty.

Israel holds the military power and rising political support to resettle Gaza. The sole issue is whether its leaders can muster the resolve shown by the original Gush Katif builders and the current marchers seeking its revival.

Picture Jewish children once more populating areas where terrorists planned attacks. Picture greenhouses supplanting rocket sites and tunnel openings. Picture synagogues and schools emerging where Hamas hid among civilians and turned homes, hospitals, and mosques into tools of conflict.

This is no illusion. It follows logically from a war Israel did not seek but must conclude on its own conditions.

The age of retreat has ended. The moment has arrived to resettle Gaza, as it forms part of the Land of Israel and because Hamas must face a cost it cannot overlook.

May this Tisha B'Av signify not only sorrow for what was lost but the start of the return to what must be reclaimed.

The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.