Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to cut off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza and besiege hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling to leave their homes and prevent them from getting food or water, according to a copy of the plan obtained by The Associated Press.
The plan, proposed by a group of retired generals to Netanyahu and the Israeli parliament, would give the Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, before declaring it a closed military zone.
Those who remain will be considered combatants, which means they could be targeted and killed, and deprived of food, water, medicine and fuel, according to a copy of the plan provided to the Associated Press by its chief architect, who believes the plan is the only way to break and pressure the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the north. To release the remaining detainees.
On its website, the agency quoted an official familiar with the matter as saying that parts of the plan are already being implemented, without specifying the parts. A second official, an Israeli, said Netanyahu had “read and studied” the plan “like many plans that came to him throughout the war,” but did not say whether any had been adopted. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan was not supposed to be discussed publicly.
Israel has already issued evacuation orders to the north more than once throughout the year-long aggression against the Gaza Strip, the latest of which was on Sunday, but so far, only a very small number of Palestinians have responded to the latest evacuation order.
Some of those who refuse evacuation orders are old, sick or afraid to leave their homes, but many fear they have nowhere safe to go and that they will never be allowed to return, as Israel has already prevented those displaced earlier in the war from returning.
“All Gazans are afraid of the plan,” said Jumana Khalili, a Palestinian aid worker who works for Oxfam and lives in Gaza City with her family. However, they will not flee.
She added, “They will not make the mistake again. We know that the place is not safe,” referring to southern Gaza, where most of the population is gathered in bleak camps that are often hit by Israeli bombing. “That’s why people in the north say it’s better to die than to leave.”
Surrender or starvation
According to the agency, the plan was presented to the Israeli parliament last month by a group of retired generals and high-ranking officers, according to minutes available to the public. Since then, officials from Netanyahu’s office have been contacted to obtain more details, according to the office’s chief engineer, Giora Eiland, the former head of the National Security Council, who Haaretz says was the author of the plan.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu informed a closed session of the Parliamentary Defense Committee that he was studying the plan.
The Associated Press quoted Eiland as saying that the only way to stop Hamas and put an end to the year-long war is to prevent aid from reaching it, and he said, “They will either have to surrender or starve.”
“This does not necessarily mean that we will kill everyone,” he added. “It will not be necessary. People will not be able to live there (north). The water will dry up.”
If the strategy succeeds in northern Gaza, the plan says, it could be replicated in other areas, including tent camps to the south that house hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.