Last week, Brigadier General and top commander of the Israel Defense Forces Itzik Cohen quietly acknowledged what the international community has long refused to admit: Israel is ethnically cleansing northern Gaza and deceiving the world. about their true intentions in that besieged territory.
Cohen admitted this on Tuesday during a closed-door session with Israeli journalists to report on the Army’s activities in the northern Strip. He boasted about how close Israeli forces were to the “complete evacuation” of Jabaliya, Beit Hanun and Beit Lahia, the three northernmost towns in Gaza that have been under military siege and Israeli bombing since early October.
“There is no intention to allow residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes,” Cohen said, before adding that his orders are clear: “create a clean space.” Cohen’s comments attracted international media attention and the Israeli military quickly distanced itself from them. What may have sounded like war crimes, a military spokesman said, were just comments taken out of context.
But in northern Gaza, what we are seeing on the ground is exactly what Cohen described: tens of thousands of civilians forced day after day to abandon homes, shelters and hospitals due to shelling, artillery fire, the quadcopter drones or the armed battalions that arrive at their doors – and make sure to demolish or burn everything that is left standing.
Residents who do not leave are starved, forcing some of them to survive on water and salt. Food has not entered the besieged areas for more than a month and global food security experts warn of the “high probability that famine is imminent.”
The political objective
Israel maintains that the goal of its current operation in northern Gaza, an even more brutal version of the sadly famous ‘generals plan’is to end Hamas’ attempts to regroup in the area. No one doubts that Israeli troops are encountering small pockets of resistance and suffering losses during their operation. But, as senior defense officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz Shortly after the start of the campaign, pressure is being put on from the political sphere to achieve a totally different objective: annexation.
This was supported by the second high-level confession, made last week by outgoing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Unceremoniously dismissed two days earlier by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant took advantage of his last hours in office to speak openly with several relatives of the Israeli hostages who remain held in Gaza. In comments that received less international media attention than Cohen’s, Gallant appeared to say that there was no military justification for continuing the war or keeping Israeli forces inside the Strip. “There is nothing left to do in Gaza,” he said. “The [objetivos] main ones have been reached; My fear is that we are staying there only because there is a will to stay there.”
That desire apparently gains strength every day among a growing segment of the Israeli right that sees it as a moment of redemption. With northern Gaza cleared of Palestinian inhabitants, the Israeli settlers – and the hidden architects of the ‘generals’ plan’ – will be able to fulfill what they have been shouting about since the first days of the current offensive and dreaming of since Israel in 2005. “withdrew” from the Strip: reestablish Jewish settlements in this territory. In fact, the plans have already been drawn up.
Of course, this is not official Israeli Government policy, at least not yet. But it is clear that Cohen and Gallant’s statements are evidence that points in that direction. Another indication is the entry into Israel’s security cabinet of two new far-right ministers earlier this week. They are Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Minister of Development of the Periphery, the Negev and Galilee; and Orit Strook, Minister of Settlements and National Missions. If we were looking for the members of the Knesset (Parliament) best positioned to advise on the colonization of Gaza, these people would be the perfect candidates.
Donald Trump, the missing piece
As Israel continues preparations to make this a reality, the final piece of the puzzle may have just fallen into place. The return to the White House of Donald Trump, whose first term was marked by the abandonment of old international and American consensus positions on Israel and Palestine, clearly puts US support for an Israeli annexation of the northern Strip on the table.
The permanent takeover of at least some of the territory seems dangerously imminent, whether with a renewed ‘deal of the century’ (promoted by Trump during his first term) or with another, less grandiose agreement that gives Netanyahu what he wants, to change to “reduce” hostilities in the south of the Strip.
Meanwhile, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he has his sights set on an even bigger achievement: sovereignty over the West Bank in 2025. Taking advantage of the current war, he has already taken significant steps toward his goal, imitating the successes achieved a few years ago. years by the settler movement. Who can say that Trump won’t support him?
After more than a year, international pressure has failed to stop Israel’s mad attack on Gaza, described by many experts as genocide. International courts have proven incapable of keeping pace with the killings on the ground, and Washington’s succession of empty threats has only emboldened the far-right Israeli government and its voters even more than with Trump’s victory. Now they will feel invincible.
There is still the possibility that the president-elect of the United States will be taken in another direction by his Saudi confidants or that in its final weeks the Joe Biden Administration will deal Israel a decisive blow as a farewell, before his departure in January. But the likelihood of both scenarios occurring is remote, and it is therefore up to the rest of the international community to put real pressure on Israel with global sanctions and an arms embargo.
It is already too late for the nearly 44,000 Palestinians killed so far by the Israeli assault on Gaza – a figure that could be significantly higher – but many more lives depend on it.
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