Giora Eiland testifies during a hearing of the civil investigative committee on the October 7 massacre, in Tel Aviv, August 8, 2024. (Photo credit: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The plan is being promoted by Reserve Major General Giora Eiland, who has encouraged the spread of disease among civilians in Gaza to help Israel win the war against Hamas.
Originally published in The Cradle.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers that he is considering the so-called âgeneralsâ planâ to lay total siege to northern Gaza and expel all its Palestinian residents, the Times of Israel reported on 23 September.
When retired major general Giora Eiland presented the plan last week, he claimed it would âchange the realityâ on the ground in Gaza.
âWe have to tell the residents of north Gaza that they have one week to evacuate the territory, which then becomes a military zone, [a zone] in which every figure is a target and, most importantly, no supplies enter this territory.â
The remaining Hamas fighters would then be forced to surrender or starve, according to the plan.
Eiland was the former director of the National Security Council and former head of the Planning Department of the Israel Defense Forces.
Israeli national broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Netanyahu, in a closed-door meeting with the Knessetâs Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the plan âmakes a lot of sense.â
Eiland claimed that the ethnic cleansing and siege of the north of the strip, where some 300,000 Palestinians still live, is not only an effective military tactic but is also compliant with international law. âWhat matters to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is land and dignity, and with this maneuver, you take away both land and dignity,â he said.
Eiland has been critical of Israelâs current strategy in the war against Hamasâs military wing and Palestinian civilians in Gaza, saying it has not been harsh enough against the Palestinian population.
âYou canât win a war while this is the situation in Gaza,â he said. âThe slogan that âonly military pressure will bring victoryâ has no basis whatsoever. The wars of the 21st century are based on something else. The most important parameter is the population, and those who can control the population win the war.â
In November, Eiland said that the spread of disease in Gaza is good for Israel. âAfter all, severe epidemics in the southern strip will bring victory closer and reduce fatalities among IDF soldiers,â he wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth.
Likud MK Amit Halevi, a member of the committee, said the Eiland plan marked âthe right directionâ for Israeli policy in Gaza.
âIn order to defeat Hamas, we must control the land and the population. There is no other way to victory,â he told the Times of Israel.
The plan does not reveal whether Palestinians could ever return to northern Gaza, one of its backers told CNN.
In October, a leaked document issued by Israelâs Ministry of Intelligence recommended the total transfer of Gazaâs 2.3 million inhabitants to Egyptâs Sinai Peninsula, ensuring they would not be able to return.
The document recommends that Israel evacuate the Gazan population to Sinai during the war, establish tent cities and new cities in northern Sinai to accommodate the deported population, and then create a closed security zone stretching several kilometers inside Egypt. The deported Palestinians would not be allowed to return to any areas near the Israeli border.
In November, Israeli minister Ron Dermer proposed a plan to âthin outâ the Gaza population by forcing civilians to flee to Egypt by land or to other parts of Africa and Europe by boat because the âsea is open to them.â
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