The Conference of Presidents Vote On Gaza Withdrawal Was 50-1. Only ZOA Voted Against Withdrawal.

(August 23, 2024 / Israel National News) Major General (res.) Gershon Hacohen has pointed out that if the towns of Gush Katif had not been evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement, then the October 7 massacre would never have happened.

In August 2005, Israel pulled out of numerous Jewish towns in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria, evicting the Jewish residents. While the Judea and Samaria towns are still empty to this day, Gaza was handed over to the Palestinian Authority, which two years later succumbed to Hamas. Eventually, Israel was forced to close the open borders between its own territory and Gaza.

Hacohen explained that the Disengagement was a mistake: “Even then I thought it was a mistake, and everyone knew it,” he told Maariv. “And unfortunately, the result is much worse than what I expected or warned about.”

Hacohen, who commanded the Disengagement, said, “Just three weeks ago, a senior journalist told me, ‘It’s very good that you evacuated Gush Katif, because if there hadn’t been the Disengagement, then on October 7, they would’ve slaughtered another 8,000 Jews.’ I told him, ‘It’s just the opposite: If there were Gush Katif, then October 7 would never have happened in the first place.”

He stressed, “If there had been no Disengagement, there would have been no October 7, because Hamas could not have organized for it the way they organized.”

The preparations for October 7 took years. The entire area of Gush Katif became a training field, a model for tanks, a model of a fence, a model of towns. If we were present in Gush Katif, they would not have had where to organize such trainings.”

This article was originally published in Israel National News and can be viewed here.