ReutersPalestinians and aid groups suspect Israel is gradually adopting new tactics in northern Gaza
On Saturday morning, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson posted a message on social media warning people living in the “D5” area of northern Gaza to move south. D5 is a square on a grid overlaid on a map of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This is a block divided into dozens of small areas.
The message was the latest in a series that said: “The Israel Defense Forces are conducting strong military operations against terrorist organizations and will continue to do so for a long time. It is considered a combat zone.” The area must be evacuated immediately to the humanitarian zone through Salah al-Din Street. ”
Attached to the map is a large yellow arrow pointing south of Gaza from block D5. Salah al-Din Street is the main north-south route. The message does not promise a quick return to the areas and places where people have lived, shattered by repeated Israeli attacks over the past year. The core of the message is that the Israel Defense Forces will “use significant force for an extended period of time.” In other words, don’t expect it to come back right away.
The humanitarian zone Israel designated in the message is al-Mawasi, formerly an agricultural area on the coast near Rafah. It is overcrowded and not as safe as many other parts of Gaza. BBC Verify tracked at least 18 airstrikes in the area.
Hamas has sent its own message to the 400,000 people left in northern Gaza, an area that once had a population of 1.4 million and was the urban center of the Strip. Hamas has instructed them not to move. They are told that the south is just as dangerous. Not only that, but Hamas has warned them that they will not be allowed to return.
Many people appear to remain in place despite Israeli airstrikes and shelling. As we went to an area overlooking northern Gaza, we heard explosions and saw plumes of smoke rising. Its intensity reminded me of the first months of the war.
Reuters
Smoke rises from Israeli shelling in northern Gaza (as seen from Israel)
While many have already fled south, some who remain in northern Gaza are doing so to remain with vulnerable relatives. Some come from families with ties to Hamas. Under the laws of war, this does not automatically make them belligerents.
One tactic used last year by civilians hoping to avoid IDF operations in the crowded and dangerous south of Gaza is to move from other parts of the north, such as Beit Hanoun, to Gaza City. They operate near their homes and evacuation centers. As the army advances, it returns.
BBC colleagues who have daily contact with Palestinians in Gaza say the IDF is trying to prevent that from happening. It channels families traveling in only one direction: Salah al-Din, the main road to the south.
Israel does not allow journalists to enter Gaza to cover the war, except for short, rare and highly supervised trips with the Israel Defense Forces. The Palestinian journalists who were there on October 7 are still doing their heroic work. The Committee to Protect Journalists has announced that at least 128 Palestinian media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Panicked families have been filmed evacuating in northern Gaza since Israel resumed its offensive, often with young children helping out, often carrying oversized backpacks.
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Some Palestinians begin moving south after the IDF orders them to leave District D5 of the Gaza map
One of them gave a short interview to a woman named Manar al-Bayar, who was rushing down the street with an infant in her arms. On her way out of the Jabalia refugee camp, half walking, half running, she said, “I was told I had five minutes to leave the school in Fallujah. Where should I go? There are assassinations in southern Gaza. West Gaza. “So, they’re shelling people, where are we going?” God is our only chance. ”
Traveling is hard. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say people on the move are sometimes fired upon by Israeli Defense Forces. The group insists that Israeli soldiers abide by strict rules of engagement that respect international humanitarian law.
But Liz Alcock, director of protection for Palestinian Medical Aid, said evidence provided by injured civilians suggested they had been targeted.
“When we receive patients in our hospitals, we see a large number of women, children and people of non-combatant age with direct gunshot wounds to the head, spine and extremities, which is a very serious situation. Directly targeted attack.
The United Nations and aid agencies working in the Gaza Strip say again that Israeli military pressure is deepening what is already a humanitarian catastrophe.
The remaining hospitals in northern Gaza are sending desperate messages that they are running out of fuel to power the generators that keep them running and the seriously injured patients alive. Some hospitals reported that their buildings were attacked by Israelis.
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In the aftermath of last month’s Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter in Jabalia. The United Nations and aid agencies say Israeli military pressure is deepening what is already a humanitarian catastrophe.
Suspicions among Palestinians, the United Nations and relief agencies are growing that the Israeli Defense Forces are gradually adopting some or all new tactics to clear northern Gaza, known as the “General Plan”. That’s what it means. It was proposed by a group of retired senior military officers commissioned by former National Security Advisor Maj. Gen. Geora Eiland (retired).
Like most Israelis, they are frustrated and angry that a year after the war began, Israel has not achieved its war objectives of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages. The General Plan is a new idea that agitators believe can break the impasse from an Israeli perspective.
At its core is the idea that by increasing pressure on the entire population of the north, Israel can force Hamas and its leader Yahya Sinwar to surrender. The first step is to order civilians to evacuate along the evacuation corridor to the south of Wadi Gaza, the east-west trend that has divided the Gaza Strip since the Israeli invasion last October.
Giora Eiland believes Israel should have struck an agreement immediately to get the hostages back, even if it meant a complete withdrawal from Gaza. After a year, he says, another method will be needed.
He laid out the nuts and bolts of the plan from his office in central Israel.
Oren Rosenfeld/BBC
Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland (retired) leads a group proposing tactics to clear northern Gaza.
“We have already laid siege to northern Gaza in the last nine to 10 months, so what we need to do is tell all of the 300,000 people who still live in northern Gaza (the United Nations estimates 400,000): They must leave the area and be given 10 days to leave through a safe passage provided by Israel.
“And after that time, the whole region will become a military zone, and all Hamas people, whether they are fighters or civilians, will have a choice: surrender or starve. We will be forced to do something.” ”
Eiland is calling on Israel to seal off the area once the evacuation corridor is closed. Those left behind will be treated as enemy combatants. The area will be under siege and the military will cut off all supplies of food, water and other necessities. He believes the pressure will become unbearable, the remnants of Hamas will quickly collapse, the surviving hostages will be released, and Israel will be liberated. The victory it craves.
The United Nations World Food Program said the current attacks in Gaza are having a “devastating impact on the food security of thousands of Palestinian families.” The main border to northern Gaza is closed and no food aid has entered the Gaza Strip since October 1, the paper said. Mobile kitchens and bakeries have been forced to suspend operations due to airstrikes. The only bakery in the north that is supported by WFP has been hit by an explosive and caught fire. The situation in the South is equally dire.
It is not clear whether the IDF has adopted the Shogun’s plan in part or in full, but circumstantial evidence of what is being done in Gaza suggests that it at least has a strong influence on the tactics being used against the population. This suggests that it is giving. The BBC submitted a list of questions to the IDF, but received no answers.
Ultranationalist extremists in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet want to replace Palestinians in northern Gaza with Jewish settlers. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has made a number of statements regarding this matter, including the following: There is no security. ”
