Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to expel all Palestinian civilians from northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in order to besiege Hamas and force the release of hostages.
It is unclear how many Palestinians remain north of the so-called Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, but estimates range into the hundreds of thousands. The plan does not specify if, when or how civilians will be allowed to return to northern Gaza. After nearly a year of war, during which no part of Gaza has been immune to Israeli airstrikes, Palestinians have become increasingly reluctant to comply with Israeli demands to relocate.
The idea comes from a group of retired Israeli military generals, who have formally presented it to the Israeli cabinet and a powerful parliamentary committee. The goal, they say, is to use siege tactics to starve out Hamas fighters and force them to release 101 hostages still being held in the area.
“Those who leave will be given food and water,” said Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli general who is leading the proposal, in a slickly produced video posted online earlier this month. “But in a week, the entire area of the northern Gaza Strip will become a military area, and this military area, as far as we are concerned, will not receive any supplies.”
Israel's national broadcaster Kan, a CNN affiliate, reported Sunday that Netanyahu said during a closed-door meeting with the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the plan makes “a lot of sense.”
“It is one of the plans being considered, but there are others,” he said, according to Kan. “We are determined to dismantle civilian control over Hamas.”
It is unclear when the meeting took place.
An Israeli official confirmed the accuracy of that quote, but said, “looking at it positively doesn't mean you have to adopt it.”
The official said that in the coming days, the head of the Israel Defense Forces' strategic division will present Netanyahu with “several alternatives” for how “to wrest civilian control of Gaza from Hamas.”
Calls to adopt plan
In a letter obtained by CNN, 27 Knesset members – including three sitting ministers – wrote to the government urging it to pass the bill.
The public face of the proposal is Eiland, who has had a glittering career, rising to the rank of major general and chairing the Prime Minister's National Security Council from 2004 to 2006.
“The reality today in Gaza is that Sinwar is really not stressed,” he says in the video. “The right thing to do is to inform the approximately 300,000 residents who have remained in the northern Gaza Strip, civilians, of the following: Not that we are suggesting that you leave the northern Gaza Strip, we are ordering you to leave the northern Gaza Strip.”
“In a week, the entire area of the northern Gaza Strip will become a military area. And this military area, as far as we are concerned, no supplies will enter the area. Therefore, 5,000 terrorists who are in this situation can surrender or starve.”
“Dictators like Sinwar are not afraid of military pressure. They are afraid of two other things: an alternative to government and the existence of an angry mob that can overthrow them.”
The Commanders and Reserve Fighters Forum, a group of retired and reservist commanders, has defended the plan as “bringing about a real change in the war situation.”
It is unclear what the top leadership of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) thinks of the plan. When asked for comment on the proposal, the IDF referred CNN to the prime minister's office.
The plan does not address whether Palestinians could ever return to northern Gaza, one of its proponents told CNN.
“It all depends on what happens in the future,” retired Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen said in a text message. “But there is no indication in the plan that they can never go back.”
The group of generals claims to have presented the plan to the Israeli cabinet “several times.” The prime minister’s office would not confirm to CNN whether those meetings took place.
The plan was presented to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Meirav Cohen, a Knesset member from the centrist Yesh Atid party, criticized the government for allowing aid trucks into Gaza.
“The only threat they have is obesity,” she said at a meeting with the pressure group, including Giora Eiland. “Is this how we are going to bring our hostages back home? So I think the plan that Giora and other commanders presented here is very smart. It sets clear rules. We have to implement it.”
In the letter to Netanyahu and his fellow ministers, 27 of the 120 members of the Knesset regret that “we have not yet reached the finish line for any of the goals defined by the War Cabinet.”
They call on the government to implement Eiland's plan in northern Gaza. “After the program is implemented in this area, it will be possible to implement it in other parts of the Strip,” they say.
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