TNA Staff
The New Arab / August 11, 2026
Former Israeli general Giora Eiland calls for Gaza to remain in ruins for generations, echoing statements cited in Israel’s genocide case.
A retired Israeli general who has repeatedly advocated making Gaza uninhabitable has called on Israel to prevent the territory from being rebuilt and instead leave it in ruins “for generations”, as US-led efforts to bring the war to an end face growing resistance in Israel.
Maj-Gen (ret) Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, condemned the Trump-backed Board of Peace’s proposal to end the war as “very pro-Hamas” and urged the Israeli government to refuse to withdraw its forces from Gaza.
“Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt. It is better for us if it remains destroyed for generations,” Eiland said in a radio interview on Sunday.
“The greater the despair in Gaza, the greater the destruction, and the longer Gaza remains a monument to what they did on 7 October, the better.”
His comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the Board’s 15-point plan and refuses to end attacks on Gaza or withdraw Israeli troops, which now occupy around 70% of the enclave.
The Board has belatedly called on Israel to comply with the ceasefire and withdraw to the Yellow Line, steps Hamas has set as conditions before it surrenders its weapons.
The Palestinian group’s pledge to disarm has triggered a backlash among Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, who fear that an agreement ending the war would kill off their ambitions to annex the territory.
Israel has largely ignored the October ceasefire agreement, continuing near-daily attacks on Gaza, expanding its occupation and maintaining heavy restrictions on aid shipments.
A history of genocidal statements
Eiland’s latest remarks echo statements he made during the earliest weeks of the war, when he repeatedly argued that making life impossible for Gaza’s civilian population should form part of Israel’s military strategy.
He was among the most frequently quoted Israeli figures in South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice, which cited statements by Israeli officials as evidence of alleged genocidal intent.
“Gaza will become an area where people cannot live,” Eiland said in a radio interview on 12 October 2023, days after the war began, as he called for a “terrible, unbearable situation” to be imposed on the territory.
“Israel has no choice but to make Gaza a place that is temporarily, or permanently, impossible to live in,” he later wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth.
The following month, Eiland went further, suggesting that the spread of “severe epidemics” could accelerate Gaza’s collapse.
He also advocated the forced transfer of Palestinians from the territory, writing in the British pro-Israel journal Fathom that “the people should be told that they have two choices; to stay and to starve, or to leave”.
Eiland has similarly erased the distinction between Palestinian civilians and combatants, describing “the entire Gaza population” as enemies of Israel.
Those ideas would later form the basis of a more formal proposal.
In 2024, Eiland was the lead author of the so-called “General’s Plan”, which proposed ordering civilians out of northern Gaza and treating those who remained as combatants.
The plan was ultimately not formally adopted, but its premise closely reflected the strategy Eiland had publicly advocated since the opening weeks of the war – applying overwhelming pressure on Gaza’s civilians to force a the ingenuous population out.
