That some Israelis believe the settlements help security only makes sense in the same way white Rhodesians believed counter insurgency made them safe[1]. The settlements are unambiguously illegal and they do infringe on civil rights of Palestinians. There is nothing complicated here. The Israelis that believe this are just wrong, and probably racist, and they have no rights to these wrong beliefs to be entered as policy.

Relevant here is what actually gets enacted as a policy and at what time. The Israeli government knows full well that these settlements are illegal, that they are morally wrong, and that they strip Palestinians of their civil rights, but they keep it as policy to maintain and expend them anyway. With that knowledge we can assume they don’t care about Palestinian civil rights. And as long as the Israeli electorate doesn’t see this as a deal breaker—which demonstrably, they don’t—we can (and honestly should) assume similar policies in Gaza. At the very least we should belief elected official when they claim they want to violate human rights of Palestinians. Especially now as they have demonstrated they are both willing and capable of committing a genocide.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLmD23UpLOo&pp=ygUIcmhvZGVza...