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some residents warning that the American presence would endanger the city. “Until now it was relatively quiet here, and now we have become a strategic target,” one commenter wrote. Another wrote that the deployment would give “Hamas, Iran and the Houthis a reason to launch missiles” at the city, and advised homeowners to start selling apartments quickly because “Kiryat Gat is about to become Ofakim” — a reference to the Gaza envelope town that was attacked on Oct. 7. A third commented that while the city now boasted “a U.S. command center,” it still lacked “a cinema, a vehicle-testing station, a pub or even one good restaurant open on weekends.”

He added, “Thank God we are on Highway 6 and can get away fast.”

One commenter went further, alleging that the Americans were “FEMA soldiers” forming a multinational force that would eventually replace the IDF and police “in preparation for a single world government,” a conspiracy theory tied to claims about “Agenda 2030.”

Much of the commentary reflected a broader unease over who is now directing events in Gaza. One user warned that “the Americans are only the beginning,” predicting “an airlift of Turkish and Indonesian soldiers soon and God knows who else they’ve sold us to.” Referring to Netanyahu as “Trump’s prime minister,” one commenter tied the moment to the dispute over the haredi draft, writing that with ultra-Orthodox men refusing to enlist, “there’s no choice now but to bring in American reinforcements.”