As U.S. voters cast their ballots on November 5, an Israeli Brigadier General told the press that Palestinians forcibly transferred out of northern Gaza would not be allowed to return. This admission adds to a large and growing body of evidence that Israel is planning to annex parts of Gaza.
For more than a month, the Israeli military has encircled northern Gaza, trapping hundreds of thousands of people. All aid into the area has been halted and the last remaining hospitals attacked and blockaded. People are being starved to death and bodies are piling up in the streets. Israel has killed at least 1,800 Palestinians since the intensified attack and siege began last month.
While the situation in all of Gaza is dire and the entire population at risk of famine, conditions in the north are beyond imagination. The United Nations has described the north as “apocalyptic.”
The Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that all civilians remaining in northern Gaza leave their homes and displacement shelters for locations in the south. But leaving is nearly impossible; many are trapped by the constant bombings, and those who do try to leave are shot at, detained, or disappeared. Israel is preventing humanitarian organizations from providing health services, clean water, and food.
The attacks, forced displacement, and isolation of Palestinians in internment camps all serve a bigger goal: the annexation and settlement of parts of Gaza.
The military actions and the near total denial of medical and humanitarian aid to Jabalia Refugee Camp, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and other areas in the north indicate that Israel is implementing the “General Eiland Plan.” This plan calls for the complete ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza and the forced transfer of the entire population. Those forcibly displaced from the north to the south would undergo invasive screening by the Israeli military.
Already, Israel is searching and detaining Palestinian men en masse. They are then placed in the Israeli military prison system. Human rights organizations have documented systematic torture, starvation, sexual violence, and abuse of detained Palestinians. Thousands have been forcibly detained and disappeared with little or no information known about their status.
Under what has become known as the General’s Plan, anyone who refused to leave northern Gaza would be considered a legitimate target by the Israeli military and would likely be killed, in violation of international law. A total blockade within the already existing blockade would also be put in place in the north to starve to death those who do not leave. All of these actions—forced evacuations, unilaterally declaring civilian populations as combatants who can be killed, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war—are atrocity crimes.
Legally and morally the U.S. must take immediate steps to stop the annexation of northern Gaza, block the creation of concentration camps, end the ongoing genocide, and hold those responsible for international crimes accountable.
Israel is also exploring the possibility of creating isolated, fenced-in areas into which any civilian population remaining in northern Gaza will be moved for an undefined period of time. These areas will be controlled by either the Israeli military or private military contractors. Palestinians interned in these locations will be monitored using biometrics. Armed private contractors working with the Israeli military will be responsible for providing basic services including access to water, food, and medical care.
Israeli officials are calling these areas “bubbles.” It would be more accurate to call them concentration camps.
Israel would control entrance and exit to the camps, which would only be for people they designated as “civilians.” All other areas of northern Gaza would likely be targeted for ethnic cleansing.
The attacks, forced displacement, and isolation of Palestinians in internment camps all serve a bigger goal: the annexation and settlement of parts of Gaza. On October 21, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party co-sponsored a conference called “Preparing to Settle Gaza” which outlined plans for establishing new settlements on the ruins of Palestinian cities. The calls for settling Gaza are not marginal, they are being made by key Israeli ministers and must be taken seriously. The infrastructure being set up in the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza by the Israeli military, including permanent military bases with water and electrical infrastructure, could serve as the basis for permanent reoccupation and settlement.
Israeli officials are calling these areas “bubbles.” It would be more accurate to call them concentration camps.
And it is not just Gaza being targeted for annexation. Shortly after the U.S. elections, Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced his intention to seize even more Palestinian land. Smotrich said he had instructed civil authorities to “begin professional and comprehensive work to prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty” over the Israeli-occupied West Bank. This would be another flagrant violation of international law.
On October 13 Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to the Israeli government giving Israel a 30 day deadline to improve humanitarian access in Gaza. As documented by international aid organizations, Israel failed to meet any of the criteria set out in the U.S. letter; instead the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorated dramatically. Despite these facts, Sec. Blinken has said that the U.S. will not change policy and weapons will continue to flow to Israel.
The Biden administration has supplied Israel with more than $17 billion in weapons and military assistance over the last year, and blocked any efforts by the international community to hold Israel accountable. Without the U.S., Israel could not carry out this genocide with impunity. The letter from Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin was woefully inadequate when issued, and the refusal of the U.S. government to take action to hold Israel to account for its failure to comply with the letter is inexcusable.
Legally and morally the U.S. must take immediate steps to stop the annexation of northern Gaza, block the creation of concentration camps, end the ongoing genocide, and hold those responsible for international crimes accountable.
President Biden has two months left in office. If he wants his legacy to go beyond abetting a genocide, he must change policy and impose an arms embargo on Israel now.
