Netanyahu and his party, Likud, discuss the plan to evacuate and siege northern Gaza, which is being devastated. The military operation has been proposed by the retired commanders of the Israeli Army and Netanyahu has stated that it "makes sense", as reported by the Israeli public chain.

According to this plan, civilians would be forced to relocate within a week and a "closed military zone" would be created north of the Netzarim corridor, which would occupy almost half of the List. Likud party parliamentarian Avichai Boaron explained to The Guardian that “after the evacuation of civilians, the Army would understand that there are only terrorists there.”

General Giora Eiland Maior is one of the reservists who proposed the plan. In his words, by naming the military zone “anyone is a military target and, more importantly, no supply is going to enter.” Eiland has presented the operation as a measure to put pressure on the new political leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, in the Gaza Strip. “What matters to Sinwar is land and dignity, and with this maneuver we will take the two away.”

According to Times of Israel, the United States does not support the plan. An Israeli leader quoted by CNN has acknowledged that the plan exists, but that “seeing positively does not mean that it will materialize”. They have pointed out that this is one of the plans being analysed.

Further impoverishing the cage

According to the UN, between 300,000 and 500,000 Palestinians still live in northern Gaza, most of them refugees, mostly. It's hard to know how many are still there after the one-year genocide, but to make a comparison, in 2017, there were only 600,000 people living in Gaza City, and there are many other centers in the north. The plan, at least according to what has been known so far, does not take into account what would happen to civilians who cannot go or decide not to go.

Netanyahu himself has stated that the control of humanitarian aid is an important key to “win in Gaza” and that the establishment of the military regime may be necessary “for the time being, even if it is not an objective”.

According to Amit Halevi of the Israeli party Likun, Eiland's plan "marks the right direction" of the crisis around Israeli policies in Gaza. “To defeat Hamas we have to control the land and the population.” As he explained, this is an operation "as the only possibility of reaching a kidnapping agreement", as it would put more pressure on Sinwar. “If you have food for years and international pressure is on Israel, what is your reason for signing the agreement?”

Ethnic cleansing plan on Youtube

General Eiland explained in a video his plan in early September, the same one that is now being discussed by the government. He explained that, in his view, Sinwar is not under pressure and that this measure would force him to release the hostages. It foresees that with the expulsion of civilians some 5,000 terrorists would remain and that they would have no choice but to "surrender or starve to death".

The expulsion of the population in the occupied territories constitutes a war crime under international law. As well as making a prediction on this, Eiland was pleased with Israel’s policy on humanitarian aid trucks. He recalled that at first they only allowed two trucks to enter Gaza and that in the November cease-fire agreement 200 were allowed daily entry (according to the UN at least one thousand trucks a day are needed to alleviate the humanitarian crisis). Obstructing humanitarian aid and denying resources to the population is also a war crime, although Israel has not paid for it.