Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.
Israel has issued many evacuation orders for the north throughout the yearlong war, the most recent of which was Sunday. The plan proposed to Netanyahu and the Israeli parliament by a group of retired generals would escalate the pressure, giving 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 would be considered combatants — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them — and denied food, water, medicine and fuel, according to a copy of the plan given to the Associated Press by its chief architect, who says the plan is the only way to break Hamas in the north and pressure it to release the remaining hostages.
The plan calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration without Hamas, splitting the Gaza Strip in two.
There has been no decision by the government to fully carry out the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” and it is unclear how strongly it is being considered.
One official with knowledge of the matter said parts of the plan are already being implemented, without specifying which parts. A second official, who is Israeli, said Netanyahu “had read and studied” the plan, “like many plans that have reached him throughout the war,” but did not say whether any of it had been adopted. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan is not supposed to be discussed publicly.
On Sunday, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas fighters in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of the city. No trucks of food, water or medicine have entered the north since Sept. 30, according to the U.N. and the website of the Israeli military agency overseeing humanitarian aid crossings.
The State Department spokesperson has said the United States is against any plan that would bring direct Israeli occupation in Gaza.
Human rights groups say the plan would likely starve civilians and that it flies in the face of international law, which prohibits using food as a weapon and forcible transfers. Accusations that Israel is intentionally limiting food to Gaza are central to the genocide case brought against it at the International Court of Justice, charges Israel denies.
So far, very few Palestinians have heeded the latest evacuation order. Some are elderly, sick or afraid to leave their homes, but many fear there’s nowhere safe to go and that they will never be allowed back. Israel has prevented those who fled earlier in the war from returning.
“All Gazans are afraid of the plan,” said Jomana Elkhalili, a 26-year-old Palestinian aid worker for Oxfam living in Gaza City with her family.
“Still, they will not flee. They will not make the mistake again ... We know the place there is not safe,” she said, referring to southern Gaza, where most of the population is huddled in dismal tent camps and airstrikes often hit shelters. “That’s why people in the north say it’s better to die than to leave.”
The plan has emerged as Hamas has shown enduring strength, firing rockets into Tel Aviv and regrouping in areas after Israeli troops withdraw, bringing repeated offensives.
After a year of devastating war with Hamas, Israel has far fewer ground troops in Gaza than it did a few months ago and in recent weeks has turned its attention to Hezbollah, launching an invasion of southern Lebanon. There is no sign of progress on a cease-fire in either front.
Israel’s offensive on the strip has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says over half of the dead are women and children.
The Generals’ Plan was presented to the parliament last month by a group of retired generals and high-ranking officers, according to publicly available minutes. Since then, officials from the prime minister’s office called seeking more details, according to its chief architect, Giora Eiland, a former head of the National Security Council.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu told a closed parliamentary defense committee session that he was considering the plan.
Eiland said the only way to stop Hamas and bring an end to the yearlong war is to prevent its access to aid.
“They will either have to surrender or to starve,” Eiland said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to kill every person,” he said. “It will not be necessary. People will not be able to live there (the north). The water will dry up.”
He believes the siege could force Hamas to release some 100 Israeli hostages still being held by the group since its Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel’s campaign. At least 30 of the hostages are presumed dead.
Human rights groups are appalled.
“I’m most concerned by how the plan seems to say that if the population is given a chance to evacuate and they don’t, then somehow they all turn into legitimate military targets, which is absolutely not the case,” said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli organization dedicated to protecting Palestinians’ right to move freely within Gaza.
The copy of the plan shared with AP says that if the strategy is successful in northern Gaza it could then be replicated in other areas, including tent camps further to the south sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
When asked about the plan Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. was going to “make absolutely clear that it’s not just the United States that opposes any occupation of Gaza, any reduction in the size of Gaza, but it is the virtual unanimous opinion of the international community.”
The north, including Gaza City, was the initial target of Israel’s ground offensive early in the war, when it first ordered everyone there to leave. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble since then.
A senior U.N. official said no aid, except for one small shipment of fuel for hospitals, has entered the north since Sept. 30, whether through crossings from Israel or from southern Gaza. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
COGAT, the Israeli body facilitating aid crossings into Gaza, denied that crossings to the north have been closed but did not respond when asked how many trucks have entered in recent days.
The U.N. official said only about 100 Palestinians have fled the north since Sunday.
“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on X Thursday. “With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading.”
Troops have already cut off roads between Gaza City and areas further north, making it difficult for people to flee, said two doctors in the far north – Mohammed Salha, director of al-Awda Hospital, and Dr. Rana Soloh, at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“North Gaza is now divided into two parts,” Soloh said. “There are checkpoints and inspections, and not everyone can cross easily.”
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
26 Comments
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kurisupisu
Without food or water people die-genocide!
Banthu
This is a blatant war crime.
Plenty of people complain about Russia but the Russians are providing food, rebuilding cities and life is more or less normal in the areas of Ukraine that they occupy.
Netenyahu is out of control.
funkymofo
Netanyahu needs to end his career on trial at the Hague.
deanzaZZR
Further north Netanyahu has told citizens in the sovereign country of Lebanon to evacuate a large section of the southern portion of the country or risk being bombed by the IDF.
That the US (UK & France) sit idly by doing nothing to stop these war crimes is mind-blowing. Rules based international order, y'all.
itsonlyrocknroll
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not just determined to root out terrorists Hamas, destroy Hezbollah its has terrifying obsession. cantered around the solemn belief that the very existence of Judaism, Israel, its people are in existential risk
The US government, no matter the public duplicity, will support Israel with every military logistic means necessary.
The UN has rendered itself, incapable incompetent irrelevance, the EU commission beyond hapless, UK/French politically diplomatically inept.
sakurasuki
After those area empty for several years, what will be there? Any idea?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68650815
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231227-israeli-company-unveils-new-settlement-in-gaza/
JeffLee
In a perfect world, Israel would be able to separate the civilians from the terrorists and eliminate the latter, spare the former. Unfortunately, it can't do that, given the situation on the ground, with Hamas embedded in residential areas, hospitals and schools in a deliberate strategy to goad its enemy to kill as many civilians as possible so as to bring pressure from the world community on Israel.
If Hamas stayed home on Oct 7 last year, the civilians in that northern area would be leading their normal, peaceful lives.
It denies using human shields, but evidence, including reports from the United Nations and independent investigations, shows that it does and makes military responses a horror for Gaza's civilians.
Chabbawanga
Israeli soldiers have been sniping Gazan children in the head.
Chabbawanga
Israel mulling over more crimes against humanity.
Chabbawanga
2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinian children on record. That was before October 7th
Wick's pencil
The US is doing something. The Biden Harris admin continue to fund and arm them. They are complicit in the genocide.
Peter14
A crime against humanity on a scale last seen in WWII with the extermination of Jews. They appear to have gone full circle and are now the monsters, on the same level as the Nazi's. And they refuse to accept what they have become.
stormcrow
It looks like the gate to Jurassic Park.
sakurasuki
@Wick's pencil
Is being funded using tax payer money, as if those money can't be used for good use domestically. Recent victims of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene, really can use some help, don't they?
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-us-military-spending-8e6e5033f7a1334bf6e35f86e7040e14
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-it-has-secured-87-billion-us-aid-package-2024-09-26/
Some dude
This is a blatant war crime.
Plenty of people complain about Russia but the Russians are providing food, rebuilding cities and life is more or less normal in the areas of Ukraine that they occupy.
Ah, the morning entertainment has arrived.
WoodyLee
""Desperado,
Why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out riding fences for so long now. ""
Bibi the desperate war criminal will do anything stay in power and avoid jail time.
Hamas and Hezbollah are proving to be a tough fight and Bibi just can't handle it, Desperate for an outcome in his favor but can't score any.
For over 75 years Israel savaged Palestine and the middle east with it's military might and terror tactics but things are changing now, for the first time in it's history Israel is facing a genuine fighting force that has no borders, no limits, little leadership, and no major bases and just don't know how to handle it.
I suggest Israel should consider ending the Occupation/Apartheid of Palestine or face these relentless forces.
GDBD
What Israel did in last 75 years and continue to do today is beyond disgusting.
People of Israel supporting it as much as they could.
Jews outside Israel supporting it by multi billion dollar donations every year.
Western countries supporting it.
Some commentators on this site supporting it.There might be few good souls in the west that still object this but establishment is same as we know from colonialism time to atomic bombing Japan. Nothing new in western front as Erich M. Remarque wrote once.
In the same time, I understand the west to a degree. Western countries know Jews really well. They prefer Jews causing trouble on someone else's land rather than in their homes. Because they know how their cohabitation with Jews went over 2 millennium. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsions_and_exoduses_of_Jews.
Sanjinosebleed
At what stage is the west going to overcome the antisemitism trope and call these war crimes out!!??
Any other country or leader considering this plan would be labelled a homicidal maniac and war criminals!
Chabbawanga
Enough of this racist crap pls. Not helping anyone.
u_s__reamer
Impunity has made Netanyahoo mad as he throws off his sheep's clothing to carry out his long-desired "Final Solution" while Accomplice-in-Chief, Biden, puts a target on the US and sends out invitations for a 9/11 replay.
Alfie Noakes
More mealy-mouthed genocide apologism from AP.
The Washington neocons, who have been in control of US foreign policy for over 20 years now, are actually directing what is clearly a white supremacist genocide in West Asia, using their proxy Zionist supremacist creation Israel to achieve it.
The US-UK-Israel aim is to destroy Lebanon and Iran and create a Greater Israel, that allows the West to control the region and its oil.
According to this Brown University Cost of War report, the US has spent "at least $22.76 billion and counting" on Israel's military and other operations in the last year. Biden/Harris and the neocons are literally funding a genocide.
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/USspendingIsrael
WoodyLee
"" It looks like the gate to Jurassic Park. ""
Anyone who followed the events in the west bank and the rest of Palestine knows these gates and walls damn well,
Israel has dissected Palestine into several controlled zones and sections discriminating against and separating it's own people based on Faith and Race.
Walls with spikes as high as 9 meters tall are erected where ever the military feel like doing it,
Arabs and Jews are being separated from each others by many of these UGLY Apartheid Era walls and becoming the norm for children of the future.
GDBD
I just posted a link to the Wikipedia showing how the cohabitation of Jews and Europeans went. Can't handle the facts?
Sanjinosebleed
When I look at that gate I see a concentration camp! How can any people be forced to live like that?
Disgusting!
WoodyLee
Alfie@
""The Washington neocons, who have been in control of US foreign policy for over 20 years now, are actually directing what is clearly a white supremacist genocide in West Asia, using their proxy Zionist supremacist creation Israel to achieve it.""
Yes, we all remember P. Wolfowitz, E. Abrams and the countless corpses of both Arabs and Americans lost in the two Iraq Wars.
rainyday
Netanyahu is a genocidal maniac.