JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday announced plans to build a new town on the Gaza border .

The town, temporarily named Hanun, which will initially house up to 2,000 people comprising of 500 religious and secular families, will be situated in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, adjacent to the northern Gaza Strip.

"The message must be clear and unequivocal - let our enemies know that for every threat and act of terrorism and every missile fired at the State of Israel, there will be a crushing response by the security forces and more houses, buildings and settlements will be erected in the Land of Israel," the head of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, Tamir Idan said Sunday.

"This moment is the victory of light over darkness, the victory of Zionism over terrorist organizations," Idan said.

The announcement of the new community by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was made at Sunday's cabinet meeting.

Sdot Negev Regional Council head Tamir Idan pictured with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November 2020 when the project was first mooted.

"Today, the Cabinet will complete the establishment of a new community, Hanun, in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. We decided on its establishment during our previous government and today we are completing its establishment by budgeting for the planning of the community. We will thereby put the establishment of the community into action. Setting up the community is additional testimony to the resilience of the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and to the strength of the State of Israel against all threats, including any trickle to which we respond with full force. We see people talking about their decisions to come and move to the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and establish new communities in the area. We are proud to build up the land of Israel, and we are proud to strengthen settlement in all of its areas," Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting.

"We all feel that we are in a historic moment because we are continuing the momentum of a town in the Gaza border area as an adequate response to terrorism and as an expression of fundamental Zionism and the settlement of Israel," the Israeli prime minister later said.

Mr. Netanyahu proposed the new settlement at Sunday's cabinet meeting in conjunction with Construction and Housing Yitzhak Goldknopf.

"This is a joyous day for me and for all citizens of Israel. Establishing a new community is of great national importance, especially at this time, and especially in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip," Goldknopf said in a statement published on Sunday. "Upon taking office, I set as my top goal to continue building, developing, and strengthening settlement. This community will give strength, especially to the prime minister. The light of setting up the community will dispel all of the darkness that some are now trying to bring on the people of Israel."