The occupation forces are calling on Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya, and Beit Lahiya to evacuate to the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip’s south. Yesterday, Sunday (Oct 6) the army said it was expanding the size of the zone ahead of plans to operate in northern Gaza and evacuate all Palestinians from there.
Palestinians flee again from northern Gaza Strip, as the occupation army begins a military operation targeting the area, Monday, October 7, 2024 (Photo: WAFA)
“IDF forces are currently operating with great force in the area. For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman says, publishing a map of the zones that are to be evacuated. He says the Salah a-Din Road will be open as a humanitarian corridor between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. today, to allow civilians to flee to southern Gaza.
According to MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash), “While most attention is on Lebanon and Iran, it appears that Israel is enacting what was named ‘The Generals Plan’ in northern Gaza, which includes the displacement or starvation of all people still in the northern Gaza Strip. This plan is a plan of ethnic cleansing and sets the scene for permanent Israeli occupation of all the northern Gaza Strip. It could also open the way for the vision held by many in the government – of resettling Gaza with Jewish settlers. The world must act to stop this new and dangerous escalation in Gaza.
In the background of the Touma-Sliman declaration, an occupation proposal made by former National Security Council chief Giora Eiland, a retired Major General of the Israeli army and with him a group of hundreds of mid-level reservist officers, who have been pushing in recent months for a complete evacuation of northern Gaza. Sunday’s move appeared to be an in-between position to expel a significant portion of the 150,000–250,000 Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza without going “all the way” with the Eiland plan.
In November 2023 Eiland, a current advisor to the defense minister decided to spell out genocide more explicitly. In a Hebrew article on the printed edition of Yedioth Ahronoth titled “Let’s not be intimidated by the world,” Eiland clarified that the whole Gazan civilian population was a legitimate military target and that even “severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer.”
His bottom line leaves no doubt as to his view: “Israel is not fighting a terrorist organization but against the State of Gaza.” Therefore, according to Eiland, “Israel must not provide the other side with any capability that prolongs its life.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32145
