On March 29, 1955, Ben-Gurion proposed in the government – as Minister of Defense in the Moshe Sharett government – to reconquer the Gaza Strip. His proposal included evacuating those refugees who so desired from the Gaza Strip to Egypt or Jordan. Following a heated discussion, and to his chagrin, the government rejected his proposal. In an interview with the New York Times, Ben-Gurion presented his version that the Gaza Strip should be annexed to Israel and at the same time the refugees evacuated.

A year and a half later, in October 1956, at a cabinet meeting approving Operation Sinai, Ben-Gurion set forth for his cabinet members the political and military objectives of the war: “Passive peace [with Egypt …] freedom of navigation … and [control of] the Gaza Strip “. Therefore, after the war, it was decided to carry out a practical process of establishing facts on the ground: Jewish settlement, first through a Nahal (IDF- Fighting Pioneer Youth) outpost, which in the future would be naturalized and become a religious kibbutz. The Rafiah Nahal outpost was established on January 3, 1957.

On January 13, 1957, the government passed a series of resolutions, including the resolution that “Israel will hold the Gaza Strip, establish self-administration of the residents and be responsible for its internal and external security through the police. Israel opposes depositing the security of the Gaza Strip in the hands of a UN task force.” Ten days later, on January 23, 1957, the Knesset approved the decision that Israel would not withdraw from Gaza.

But international pressure proved stronger. On March 1, 1957, Foreign Minister Golda Meir announced at the United Nations “an Israeli readiness for a full and immediate withdrawal from the Sharm el-Sheikh area and the Gaza Strip.”
(From the Gaza Strip and the Southern Border of the State of Israel – Hagai Huberman – The Jewish Community of Gaza Published by the Gush Katif Heritage Center 2019)