The Israeli military is carrying out a widespread operation in northern Gaza, issuing evacuation orders and blocking food supplies, just weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to be mulling a plan to besiege the area to starve Hamas and force it to release hostages.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this week launched the operation following intelligence that it said showed “the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the area of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, as well as efforts by Hamas to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area.” In practice, the renewed offensive has been far more widespread than the Jabalya refugee camp.
Four sources have told CNN that the Israeli cabinet has not adopted the siege proposal put forward by retired general Giora Eiland. But the operation currently underway bears resemblance to the plan presented by Eiland in a public video, and in private to the Israeli cabinet and the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
A former senior military official who is aware of the Israeli government and security leadership’s thinking – though not directly involved in decision-making – told CNN that the cabinet had adopted “a version of” Eiland’s proposal, which has come to be known as “The General’s Plan.” Eiland told CNN the claim was “quite true” but said there were significant differences between his proposal and what was being implemented on the ground.
The operation comes at a time when the Israeli government is known to be considering several plans to reset the war in Gaza.
Eiland last month proposed forcing all civilians out of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, and then cutting off all supplies to the area. The goal, he said, was to force a reset in the war and upend Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s calculus. “The reality today in Gaza is that Sinwar is really not stressed,” he said in a video released at the time.
The former military official who spoke to CNN said that “what was adopted [by the government] was the need to do more in Gaza, to change the way Sinwar is thinking. It was adopted without any way that may be conceived a violation of international law.”
Eiland’s proposal had no plan to allow Gazan civilians to return to northern Gaza, Retired Major-General Gershon Hacohen, who was involved in its drafting, told CNN. That situation would seem certain to draw accusations of ethnic cleansing, something that has already been raised by academics like Omer Bartov, an Israeli-born professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University in Rhode Island.
Obtained by CNN
Eiland told CNN by text message that the cabinet is “indeed acting on my recommendation with the intention of taking control of the northern Gaza Strip, but I recommended implementing a siege (after evacuating the civilians) and stopping the entry of supplies into this area. None of this is happening.”
On Monday, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson ordered all Palestinians in Gaza’s northern-most communities – Beit Hanoun, Jabalya, and Beit Lahia – to leave and relocate to Al Mawasi, an Israel-declared “humanitarian area” in southern Gaza that has nonetheless come under intense aerial bombardment for months.
The military on Saturday added additional mandatory evacuation zones, dropping flyers and posting on X, ordering people in the Nazla area and more areas of Jabalya to leave.
The military “is operating with great force against terrorist organizations and will continue to do so for an extended period,” Avichay Adraee said on X. “You must evacuate the area immediately via Salah al-Din Street to the humanitarian zone.”
CNN
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