Younis Tirawi
Drop Site News / December 2, 2024
[via email]
On November 28, Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf visited the border of Gaza, accompanied by Daniella Weiss, the godmother of the Zionist settler movement, with the explicit goal of «scouting» sites for resettlement. Goldknopf posted a photo gazing through binoculars at the area. “Today I toured the Gaza Strip settlements,” Goldknopf tweeted, framing the expedition as retaliation for the ICC arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “Jewish settlement here is the answer to the terrible massacre and the answer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague who, instead of caring for the 101 hostages, chose to issue arrest warrants against the prime minister and the minister of defense.”
“The tour that took place today included a visit to several significant points of view, at the entrance to Tzir Netazir [the Netzarim corridor] – to understand the decisive importance of the place and its immediate readiness for Jewish settlement,” a post by Weiss’s Nachala Settler Movement detailed. Israel has conducted extensive demolitions in the Netzarim corridor that divides northern and central Gaza as the Israeli army works day and night to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians of northern Gaza. “The minister expressed his great appreciation for the dedication and joy of all partners and promised support and help as much as he can for the Jewish settlement in Gaza!”
In addition to the Israeli military conducting extensive demolitions, Drop Site News has uncovered that Israel has now contracted private companies specializing in settler construction to work in northern Gaza. One construction company confirmed it is hiring for operations in Beit Lahia, a town adjacent to the northern border of Gaza. This is the first time a private company has been documented working in the north.
The use of private contractors to conduct demolitions has been documented previously in Rafah by the company Meshek Afar. And the Asia Construction Company claims to have worked on the Gaza pier, and on the road along the Philadelphi Corridor. In May, a construction worker, Liron Yitzhak, was killed in southern Gaza while doing work for an unnamed company.
A job advertisement from Libi Construction and Infrastructure Ltd.—a settlement construction company registered in the illegal outpost of Shiloh near Ramallah—recently posted in a Facebook group named “reservists” to conduct demolitions in Gaza. But the use of private contractors enables civilian workers, not just Israeli reservists, to enter Gaza. “Looking for bulldozer operators for demolition work in Gaza,” the job description reads, “The job is also relevant for those who have not served in the army. Good pay.”
Libi Construction specializes in the building of settlement outposts throughout the occupied West Bank, especially in the northern parts and the Jordan Valley. In the past months alone, the company built dozens of settlements in the areas of Nablus and Selfit in the West Bank. According to its website it “specializes in the construction of prefabricated buildings of all types – for residential, institutional, and public use. Everything is on us. All that’s left is to populate the houses.” Notably, though the job posting is for demolition work, Libi construction group doesn’t offer demolition on its web page, and is highly specialized in settlement activity and rapid settlement construction.
The posting comes as Israel is annihilating northern Gaza. “Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza. There is no Beit Lahia, no Beit Hanoun,” former Israeli military chief of staff and defense minister Moshe Ya’alon said in widely publicized, critical marks on November 30. Ya’alon has previously boasted about destroying thousands of residential units in Gaza who now finds himself in opposition to the government. “They are currently operating in Jabalia and clearing the area of Arabs.”
Libi construction and infrastructure Ltd. and Harel Libi
The job posting on Facebook was a screenshot of a WhatsApp story of a man named Harel Libi, officially registered as an administrator of the company. I approached Libi directly to inquire about the job, and he confirmed the company employs civilians in addition to members of the Israeli military. The only question Libi had was whether I had any experience, to which I said yes.
He told me that he was in Gaza, but would send us all the relevant papers and documentation when he returned to Israel. We agreed that the work would begin within a few days.
Based on my conversations with Libi, the payment terms for the work are set at a daily rate of 600 Israeli shekels (approximately $165/day), with the work schedule running from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., five days a week, in Beit Lahia. The work is set to begin as early as next week. Libi made it clear that individuals working on the project are not permitted to leave the area without a military escort. He also noted that the project duration is undefined, with no specific end date for the contract.
The day after I first got in touch, Libi sent me a document to complete in order to proceed. The document does not mention “Gaza” but asked me to acknowledge that the work will be done outside the Israeli border.
The key terms for participating as a civilian in operations beyond Israel’s borders included:
- Article 2: The individual acknowledges that he has received safety and security instructions associated with performing duties outside the borders.
- Article 3: The individual was offered the option to fulfill their obligations as part of the military reserves but chose to perform the assigned work as a civilian.
- Article 6: In the event of death during these operations, the individual will be recognized as a “victim of hostile acts” rather than as a “fallen soldier.”
Our work manager would be Aviad Cohen and all equipment and vehicles used for the operation would belong to the company. Cohen and his phone number also appear in a job advertisement for building in the occupied West Bank by the Libi Construction Group.
Libi Construction is owned by several settlers that have been widely documented by numerous Israeli NGOs and monitoring groups with a long record of attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank. According to Kerem Navot (Naboth’s Vineyard), an Israeli NGO which monitors and carries out research on Israeli land policy in the occupied West Bank, the company built the settlement of “Adei Ad” and has earned a notorious reputation for being one of the most violent and brutal outposts in the occupied West Bank.
And, according to Israeli researcher Dror Etkes, founder of Kerem Navot, the company has close connections to Amana, a settler organization currently under U.S. sanctions, and the settlement council in the West Bank.
The group has been working at an accelerating pace in the past months to build settlements in the West Bank. A Facebook post from September mentioned the involvement of the Libi company in the construction of a 62-unit neighborhood in the settlement of Itamar, located near Nablus in the West Bank. In July, a settler tagged the Libi company thanking them for its role in building a new settlement compound in the illegal outpost of Revava, located in the Palestinian city of Salfit, also in the West Bank.
Libi has a long history that includes several run-ins with the “rule of law.” In an article from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz from 2012, Harel Libi appears as one of the 12 settlers given removal orders from the West Bank for being involved in attacks against Palestinian residents and Israeli military in the West Bank. Another one of the 12, Zvi Sukkot, is now a member of the Knesset.
Harel is regarded as among the most violent settlers in the West Bank. Libi founded the outpost of Marom Shmuel on the lands of several villages including Beit Dajan and runs a farm there. A September article in the Israeli newspaper Zman Israel, written by Omer Sharvit, details the close relationship between Harel Libi—nicknamed “Coco”—and Moshe Sharvit, a settler sanctioned by the EU, U.S., and UK for his actions. The piece includes testimonies from Palestinian farmers describing how Sharvit, under U.S. sanctions, collaborated with Libi in carrying out attacks on Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley. In one incident, a resident of Hamra in the Jordan Valley reported that settlers from Libi’s farm burned his property.
“Moshe Sharvit arrived here with an ATV, drove around the residential area, cursed, and was armed,” one farmer Abu Seif told Zman about an encounter on August 24, 2023. “He called his friend Coco to come. In total, there were five or six of them, and they opened the taps of two water tanks.”
In an article from last year, Israeli right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon details the efforts of Harel Libi and his wife Talia in a lengthy interview. His wife told the newspaper how she and her husband dedicated themselves to establishing as many settlements as possible. They moved frequently, even setting up illegal outposts under Israeli law, with the goal of settling as much land as they could and taking territory from Palestinians.
In a 2022 YouTube interview on the channel Ezri ToBe, also published by the right-wing newspaper Arutz Sheva, Israel channel 7, Ezri visits the illegal outpost of Marom Shmuel. Libi acknowledges that the land isn’t theirs—and claims they are simply holding it until other settlers arrive: “We haven’t come here to seize land. We don’t seize land. It’s not our land—not ours, not any other farm’s. We’re safeguarding the land. That’s a big difference. At the end of the day, the land isn’t ours”
The interviewer concludes by asking Libi where they plan to move next. Smiling, Libi responds, “We’re not going to reveal all the secrets.”
Younis Tirawi is a Palestinian journalist covering politics and security in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, primarily sharing updates on X
