2005 Gaza pullout to Oct. 7

(JNS) — The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, can be traced back to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, Amichai Chikli, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, stated on Wednesday evening.

“There is a direct line between the withdrawal from Gaza to the disaster of Oct. 7,” Chikli said in remarks at The Future of Judea and Samaria conference at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, sponsored by the American Friends of Judea & Samaria and the Jewish News Syndicate.

He noted that because of the dismantling of Isr...