JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to block humanitarian aid to northern Gaza to starve Hamas militants, but he doesn’t want the plan to go ahead. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians could be trapped without food or water. Or unable to leave the house.
FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)
Israel has issued multiple evacuation orders for the north throughout the year-long war, the most recent on Sunday. A plan proposed by a group of retired generals to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli parliament would increase pressure and give Palestinians a week to leave before declaring the northern third of the Strip, including Gaza City, a closed military zone. It gives you a reprieve.
Remainers would be considered combatants, military regulations would allow them to be killed by the military, and they would be denied food, water, medicine and fuel, according to a copy of the plan provided to The Associated Press by its chief architect. It is the only way to defeat Hamas in the north and pressure them to release the remaining hostages.
The plan calls for Israel to maintain control of the north indefinitely, attempt to form a new government without Hamas, and divide the Gaza Strip in two.
There is still no government decision to fully implement the so-called “Shogun’s Plan” and it is unclear how strongly it is being considered.
Asked whether the evacuation order for northern Gaza marked the first stage of the “General’s Plan,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said “no.”
“We have not received any such plans,” he said.
But one official familiar with the matter said some parts of the plan were already in place, but declined to say which parts. Another Israeli official said Netanyahu had “read and studied" the plans “like many plans that came to him during the war,” but it was unclear whether any of them were adopted. was not mentioned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan is not to be discussed publicly.
On Sunday, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas fighters in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of the city. The amount of aid reaching the north has significantly decreased since October 1, according to the United Nations.
FILE – Palestinian patients carry luggage on their way back to the Gaza Strip from treatment in Israel near the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on September 19, 2023. . (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the U.S. government opposes any plan for a direct Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Human rights groups fear the plan could harm civilians.
Human rights groups say the plan is likely to starve civilians to death and violates international law, which prohibits the use of food as weapons or forced displacement. Accusations that Israel deliberately restricts food supplies to Gaza are at the center of a genocide case filed at the International Court of Justice, a charge that Israel denies.
A coalition of Israeli NGOs said on Monday that “there are worrying signs that the Israeli military is quietly beginning to carry out this plan” and called on the international community to take action.
“States have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forced displacement,” they wrote, warning that “continuing with a ‘wait and see’ approach will allow Israel to liquidate northern Gaza.”
So far, few Palestinians have complied with the latest evacuation order. Some are elderly, sick, and afraid to leave their homes, but many others don’t have a safe place to go and fear they will never be allowed to return. Israel has prevented the return of those who fled early in the war.
FILE – Palestinians recover items destroyed during Israeli air and ground attacks in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 31, 2024, after Israeli forces withdrew from the area. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)
“All Gazans are afraid of this plan,” said Jomana El-Khalili, a 26-year-old Oxfam Palestinian aid worker who lives in Gaza City with her family.
“Yet they won’t run away. They won’t make the mistake again… We know the place is not safe there,” she said, with most of the population holed up in dire tent camps. He mentioned southern Gaza, where the US government frequently bombs evacuation centres. “That’s why northerners say it’s better to die than leave.”
The plan emerged as Hamas has shown continued strength, firing rockets into Tel Aviv and regrouping in areas after Israeli forces withdrew from the area to carry out repeated attacks.
After a year of devastating war with Hamas, Israel has far fewer ground troops in Gaza than it did months ago, and in recent weeks has turned its attention to Hezbollah, launching an invasion of southern Lebanon. I am doing it. There are no signs of a ceasefire progressing on either front.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
People in northern Gaza could be forced to ‘surrender or starve’
FILE – On May 1, 2024, Israeli soldiers stand guard near a truck carrying humanitarian aid heading to the Gaza Strip on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing between southern Israel and northern Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE – An Israeli soldier exits a tunnel that the military said was used by Hamas militants to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Shalit, File)
FILE – Palestinians walk through destruction following Israeli air and ground attacks in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)
The General Plan was submitted to Congress last month by a group of retired generals and senior military officers, according to publicly available minutes. Giora Eiland, former head of the National Security Council and chief architect, said she has since received calls from officials in the prime minister’s office asking for more details.
According to Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a closed parliamentary defense committee meeting that the plan was being considered.
Eiland said the only way to stop Hamas and end the year-long war is to block its access to aid.
FILE – Retired Israeli General Giora Eiland speaks with military officers before holding a press conference at the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Ariel Shalit, File)
“They will either surrender or starve to death,” Eiland said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean killing everyone,” he said. “There’s no need for that. People won’t be able to live there (on the north side). The water will dry up.”
He said the siege could force Hamas to release about 100 Israeli hostages still held by the group since the October 7 attack that triggered the Israeli expedition. I’m thinking. At least 30 of the hostages are estimated to have died.
FILE – Hana Alrai, 3, left, who suffers from diabetes, a weakened immune system and malnutrition, is being treated at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on June 1. Resting. , 2024. Families evacuate from northern Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Jehad Al-Shurafi)
Human rights groups are appalled.
“My biggest concern is that the plan states that if residents are given the opportunity to evacuate and do not evacuate, somehow they all become legitimate military targets. As much as it seems like there is, that’s definitely not the case,” Tania Harry said. , executive director of Gisha, an Israeli organization dedicated to defending the right of Palestinians to move freely within Gaza.
A copy of the plan shared with The Associated Press says that if the strategy is successful in northern Gaza, it could be replicated in other areas, including tent camps sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians further south. It is written that it is sexual.
Asked about the plan Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. “is not alone in opposing any occupation of Gaza or any reduction in the size of Gaza, even hypothetically.” I will make that clear.” This is the consensus opinion of the international community. ”
FILE – An aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip. Viewed from central Gaza on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
Aid has dried up in northern Gaza, leaving people trapped.
The north, which includes Gaza City, was the first target of ground attacks early in the war when Israel first ordered everyone there to leave. Since then, the entire neighborhood has been reduced to rubble.
According to the United Nations website, which tracks the movement of supplies, around 80 trucks carrying aid have passed through the intersection in northern Gaza since October 1; It was about 60 cars per day. A senior UN official said one small fuel shipment destined for hospitals had entered the north since October 1. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
COGAT, the Israeli organization that facilitates aid crossings into Gaza, denied that the crossing to the north had been closed, but did not respond to questions about how many trucks had entered in recent days. Ta.
United Nations officials said only about 100 Palestinians have fled the north since Sunday.
“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, director of the United Nations Office for Palestine Refugees, wrote on Thursday. “Hunger is widespread because basic supplies are hardly available.”
Two doctors in the far north, Mohamed Salha, director of Al-Awda Hospital, and Dr. Rana Soro, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said the military had already blocked roads between Gaza City and areas further north, depriving people of their belongings. He said it was becoming difficult to evacuate. .
“Northern Gaza is currently divided into two parts,” Solo said. “There are checkpoints and checkpoints, but not everyone can get through them easily.” ___
FILE – A Palestinian woman and her children walk through destruction as Israeli air and ground attacks continue in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, after Israeli forces withdrew from the area, May 31, 2024 (AP Photo/Enas Rami)
Melanie Lidman contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
