Israeli soldiers say 'Generals' Plan' already underway in northern Gaza

Israeli media has reported evidence that a plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and kill any Palestinians who remain is underway.

Three Israeli reserve soldiers serving in Gaza told Haaretz this week that they believe the "Generals' Plan", also known as the Eiland Plan, is being implemented.

“The goal is to give the residents who live north of the Netzarim area a deadline to move to the south of the strip. After this date, whoever will remain in the north will be considered an enemy and will be killed," a soldier stationed in the Netzarim Corridor was quoted as saying.

"It doesn’t conform to any standard of international law. People sat and wrote a systematic order with charts and an operational concept, at the end of which you shoot whoever isn’t willing to leave. The very existence of this idea is unfathomable.”

Over the past 10 days, as Israeli forces ordered hundreds of thousands of people to flee northern Gaza before launching a new offensive, Israeli media and analysts have suggested that the military is implementing this controversial plan.

There are now increasing signs that even if the policy has not been adopted by top military officials who are reportedly discussing it, the plan is already being carried out, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

"Ideas such as deliberately opening fire close to a population and even steps towards starving the inhabitants are being debated," wrote Haaretz journalist Amos Harel.

"These ideas haven’t officially been validated in the IDF chain of command, but the very fact that they are being discussed, and the political involvement of right-wing parties and media outlets, is trickling down."

A second soldier told Haaretz: “The commanders say openly that the Eiland Plan is being promoted by the IDF."

A senior general staff officer responded to Haaretz, saying: "We take orders only from the chief of staff and pass them on to the divisional commanders. Many people have different worldviews and that's fine, but that does not dictate the operational plans. There is no starvation of the population here in order to evacuate them. No way." 

'Complete nonsense'

Two Israeli experts have said that they believe the "General's Plan" is "complete nonsense" and predicated on pre-7 October dynamics that are no longer relevant.

Assaf David, co-founder of the Forum for Regional Thinking and head of the Israel in the Middle East Cluster at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, told Middle East Eye he thinks the Israeli military is implementing the plan to put pressure on Hamas, assuming it is the same organisation it was a year ago.

'I think the government let go of the hostages and they don’t care if they die'

- Assaf David, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

“It's an illusion. It’s not the same organisation and not in the same position. It lost many of its military capabilities and resilience and power in Gaza," David said.

“This is not what will bring the hostages back home and the government knows it. I think the government let go of the hostages and they don’t care if they die.”

Instead, he said, the strategy in northern Gaza - and Lebanon - is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broader plan to stay in power and “has nothing to do with security considerations”.

“What is happening now in the north is occupation, no doubt,” David said. “The world has been busy with what is going on in Lebanon and it gave Israel the chance in north Gaza. Even if it wasn’t planned, it was given an opportunity.”

Moving forward, he believes northern Gaza will be under Israeli security and military control indefinitely because it’s in Netanyahu’s interests to stay “in endless war” to avoid cases against him in court and scrutiny over his responsibility for 7 October.

Beyond that, David said, “there is no plan for Gaza, no way out" and he doesn’t expect any Arab country or the Palestinian Authority to agree to help with northern Gaza’s civil administration unless it would be part of a broader plan for Palestinian liberation.

Yagil Levy, associate professor at the Open University in Israel, recently said on the In Radio with Kletzkin podcast that the plan, beyond being morally flawed, "indicates a fundamental lack of understanding of how international politics is conducted".

“This idea that Gaza can be turned into a concentration camp, that every time people are moved according to the whims of the Israeli side, and all this will work and that when we want all this will stop and then Gaza will return to normal. This is complete nonsense,” Levy said.

“The event of October 7th should have made it clear to us that it is impossible to keep a population of millions under siege, that some of us by the way deny its very existence, it cannot be done.”

Meanwhile, in an opinion piece for Israeli news outlet Mako, Ronen Tzur, a prominent political advisor and former senior official in the Hostages' Families Forum, called for Israel to occupy territories as punishment for "whoever declares war and loses".

Tzur said Israel’s enemies must be punished by taking their territory, expelling their population, and creating new borders for Israel. He cited the seizing of Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan heights during previous wars with Israel's Arab neighbours.

'Alarming signs'

Israeli human rights groups and major international aid organisations have called on leaders and the international community to stop Israel's forced displacement in northern Gaza.

In Israel, rights groups including Gisha, B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Yesh Din, said there were "alarming signs" that the "General's Plan" was being implemented.

"States have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forcible transfer, and that if the continuation of the 'wait and see' approach will enable Israel to liquidate northern Gaza, they will be complicit," they said.

Major aid organisations warned that northern Gaza is being "wiped off the map", urging world leaders to stop the "atrocities" committed by Israeli forces.

"The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity," said organisations such as Oxfam, Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map), ActionAid, Islamic Relief, Christian Aid and other UK-based charities on Tuesday.

"This is not an evacuation; this is forced displacement under gunfire. Since 1 October, no food has been allowed into the area, and civilians are being starved and bombed in their homes and their tents."

At least 42,409 Palestinians have been killed and 99,153 wounded since Israel's war on Gaza began last October, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian health ministry.