The Israeli army admitted it’s staying in north Gaza. Here’s the next phase of its plan.

Ever since the Israeli army launched its assault on northern Gaza on October 5 last month, it has now become clear that Israel has been implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” a proposal put forward by a group of senior Israeli military officials based on the vision of retired Israeli general Giora Eiland.

In the early months of the war on Gaza, Eiland penned an Op-Ed making the case that the strip’s northern governorate — the area north of Gaza City comprising Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun — should be emptied of all civilians through mass displacement and deliberate starvation. Anyone who remained would be considered an enemy combatant and would either be killed or starved to death, as Eiland said that no food or humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter north Gaza.

Two weeks before the Israeli invasion of the northern governorate began, Netanyahu reportedly met with Israeli lawmakers and told them that he was considering the Generals’ Plan. As the northern operation began on October 5, it seemed that Eiland’s vision was being implemented.

The Israeli assault has concentrated on Jabalia refugee camp, the third invasion of the camp since the start of the war, in addition to the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. These areas have witnessed unceasing bombardment, mass arrests, reported field executions, degrading and inhumane treatment, forced displacement on a mass scale, and the systematic targeting of hospitals, according to numerous eyewitness testimonies gathered by Mondoweiss over the past month.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in their homes, while the Israeli army has gone house to house and rounded up residents in Jabalia, separating men, women, and children into three groups and forcing them into ditches dug by army bulldozers. The army arrests some, executes others in the field, and displaces the rest, eyewitnesses have told Mondoweiss. An unspecified number of men have been arrested or killed in circumstances that have yet to be revealed.

The Israeli army is also destroying the health system in the north, preventing the entry of food and medicine and deliberately targeting rescue teams and first responders. Israeli forces emptied out Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, arresting almost its entire medical staff and leaving only a handful of medics to care for the sick. 

At the beginning of the invasion of the northern Gaza Strip, rescue organizations were calling on the world to save 200,000 civilians besieged by the Israeli army in the north, bombing them everywhere and preventing rescue teams from reaching them. 

New statements put out by rescue teams now call on the word to save the 100,000 people left in the north. In other words, in one month of continuous killing, it is thought that the Israeli army has ethnically cleansed some 100,000 people out of north Gaza. These numbers are estimates by the Gaza Civil Defense.

The majority of the displaced have moved to Gaza City, just south of the northern Gaza governorate. “There were about 100,000 citizens in the northern Gaza Strip…now, there are about 80,000 people left. The number continues to decrease with the killing and bombing,” Mahmoud Basal, the Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson, tells Mondoweiss. “Those who remain are in imminent danger. For about a month, they have had no water, food, or medicine.” 

“In light of preventing our crews from working and using vehicles and equippment, we cannot carry out our work,” Basal continues. “The only fate facing people in the northern Gaza Strip is death.”

The Gaza Civil Defense has issued these numbers as an estimate based on the movement of the displaced from different areas in the north. The last estimate was on Thursday, November 7, when evacuation orders were sent to entire neighborhoods, including the al-Shimaa and al-Amal neighborhoods in Beit Lahia. Basal points out that the numbers are based on the number of tents and displaced people in Gaza City, as well as numbers that arrived through Salah al-Din Street, the main highway in the Strip that connects north Gaza to the south.

What comes next in the north Gaza operation?

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli army’s 162nd Division has “finished completely dismantling Hamas’s three battalions” in Jabalia refugee camp, alleging, without evidence, the killing of over 1,000 fighters and arresting 500 more. 

The displaced from northern Gaza are waiting for the end of the military operation so they can return to their homes, but recent statements by the Israeli army say that Palestinians will not be allowed to return to their homes and that the Israeli army would remain in the north.

These statements indicate that the Israeli army is proceeding with its plan to completely empty northern Gaza of its residents. In a briefing Tuesday evening, Israeli army spokesperson Yitzhak Cohen told Israeli reporters that since Israeli soldiers had already entered areas like Jabalia refugee camp throughout the war, “there is no intention of allowing residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes,” as reported by The Guardian. 

The spokesperson added that no more humanitarian aid would be allowed into the north since there are “no more civilians left.” The Guardian reported that another army spokesperson calrified that Cohen’s comments “had been taken out of context.”

These statements are the first Israeli admission that the Israeli army will occupy northern Gaza permanently and prevent the return of Palestinian residents.

Last month, the United Nations estimated that some 400,000 civilians were unable or unwilling to comply with Israeli evacuation orders. As the army continues to operate in the north, the now estimated 80,000 people in the north are under threat of extermination.

“For about a month, the occupation army has been completely besieging the northern governorate, including Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, and imposing a stifling siege on the residents there,” Mahmoud Basal said. “Now the Generals’ Plan to empty northern Gaza is actually being implemented.” 

“This is clear from the scenes coming out of the north,” Basal explained.