Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / November 7, 2024
The Israeli army has admitted for the first time that it intends to prevent Palestinian residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes.
Israel announced on Thursday that it will expand its offensive on north Gaza, which has been ongoing since October 5 last month. According to the Israeli army, military operations that have largely taken place in Jabalia refugee camp will expand to Beit Lahia.
In Jabalia, Israeli forces have been carpet bombing the remaining infrastructure of the refugee camp and deploying quadcopter drones among the civilian population. Eyewitnesses who spoke to Mondoweiss last month reported that the drones fired on fleeing residents waving white flags and targeted individuals using facial recognition. Simultaneously, Israeli forces have blocked the entry of food and medicine to all of northern Gaza, pushing inhabitants to leave the area or starve. Survivors of the ongoing invasion report an “extermination” campaign.
Most Palestinians who have been forced to leave Jabalia have fled to Gaza City, just south of north Gaza. Others have fled to Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun within the north, and according to local sources, only a small number of Palestinians have fled to the southern Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson of the Israeli army, Yitzhak Cohen, said in a press briefing that the army has come close to the complete “evacuation” of the population of north Gaza. The army spokesperson said that Palestinian residents of the north will not be allowed to return to their homes. This declaration marks the first official Israeli admission of the intent to permanently expel Palestinians from north Gaza.
The Israeli army continues to besiege Kamal Adwan Hospital, ten days after first raiding the medical compound and forcibly removing most of its patients, medical staff, and the displaced civilians sheltering there. The hospital’s director, Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh, said on Wednesday that Israeli forces have been striking the upper floors of the hospital, putting patients’ lives in danger. Video footage taken from inside the hospital showed the moment when Palestinian civilians were clearing the upper floors as Israeli bombs struck the hospital.
Dr. Abu Safiyeh said that Israeli forces had arrested most of the medical staff in the invasion ten days ago and were blocking the arrival of medical teams. Abu Safiyeh added that only a few doctors, in addition to himself, remained to tend to the patients that were left.
Several wounded patients lost their lives at Kamal Adwan due to the lack of specialized personnel and medical supplies, the hospital director said.
Kamal Adwan is the only remaining functioning hospital in north Gaza.
Implementing the Generals’ Plan ?
Israel has periodically invaded and besieged north Gaza, including Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and al-Twam, since October 7 of last year, while its bombardment of the northern governorate has not stopped throughout the past year.
Before the war, approximately 700,000 Palestinians lived in the Gaza Strip’s northern governorate, but the majority of them fled south throughout the war. Prior to the most recent offensive last month, some 200,000 Palestinians were estimated to have remained in northern Gaza, but the Israeli onslaught has almost halved those numbers, according to local Civil Defense crews.
Israel’s current offensive on northern Gaza aligns with the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” a proposal of a group of top Israeli generals that aims to empty Gaza of its population through a systematic campaign of starvation, mass killing, and forcible displacement. The plan is based on a vision laid out by retired Israeli general Giora Eiland in the early months of the war. Eiland’s vision is that Israel should impose unlivable conditions on the inhabitants of northern Gaza by starving them out and forcing them to leave for the south. Whoever remains, Eiland said, would be considered a Hamas member or sympathizer, and thus a legitimate target. The idea is to drain northern Gaza of its population and thus isolate Hamas from its social base, forcing it to capitulate or die.
Last September, several Israeli generals endorsed Eiland’s vision and proposed it to the government. Netanyahu then told Israeli lawmakers that he was considering the “Generals’ Plan,” as reported by AP in mid-October. Two weeks after Netanyahu’s reported meeting with Israeli lawmakers, the siege on northern Gaza and the ground invasion of Jabalia began.
Last week, the Israeli army said that it had ended most of its “operations” in north Gaza and that it would end its offensive there soon. This announcement gave the impression that Israel would refrain from the full implementation of the Generals’ Plan, but the Israeli army’s most recent announcement that the offensive would expand to Beit Lahia indicates that Eiland’s plan is continuing apace.
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss
