The Israeli army admitted it’s staying in north Gaza. Here’s the next phase of its plan
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza flee amid an Israeli military operation in Jabalia, 25 October 2024
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 8 November 2024:
Ever since the Israeli army launched its assault on northern Gaza on October 5 last month, it has now become clear that Israel has been implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” a proposal put forward by a group of senior Israeli military officials based on the vision of retired Israeli general Giora Eiland.
In the early months of the war on Gaza, Eiland penned an Op-Ed making the case that the strip’s northern governorate — the area north of Gaza City comprising Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun — should be emptied of all civilians through mass displacement and deliberate starvation. Anyone who remained would be considered an enemy combatant and would either be killed or starved to death, as Eiland said that no food or humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter north Gaza.
Two weeks before the Israeli invasion of the northern governorate began, Netanyahu reportedly met with Israeli lawmakers and told them that he was considering the Generals’ Plan. As the northern operation began on October 5, it seemed that Eiland’s vision was being implemented.
The Israeli assault has concentrated on Jabalia refugee camp, the third invasion of the camp since the start of the war, in addition to the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. These areas have witnessed unceasing bombardment, mass arrests, reported field executions, degrading and inhumane treatment, forced displacement on a mass scale, and the systematic targeting of hospitals, according to numerous eyewitness testimonies gathered by Mondoweiss over the past month.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in their homes, while the Israeli army has gone house to house and rounded up residents in Jabalia, separating men, women, and children into three groups and forcing them into ditches dug by army bulldozers. The army arrests some, executes others in the field, and displaces the rest, eyewitnesses have told Mondoweiss. An unspecified number of men have been arrested or killed in circumstances that have yet to be revealed.
The Israeli army is also destroying the health system in the north, preventing the entry of food and medicine and deliberately targeting rescue teams and first responders. Israeli forces emptied out Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, arresting almost its entire medical staff and leaving only a handful of medics to care for the sick.