Last week, Brigadier General and Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli Defense Forces, Itzik Cohen, quietly acknowledged what the international community has long refused to admit: Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza and deceiving the world about its true intentions in this besieged territory.
Cohen admitted as much on Tuesday during a closed-door session with Israeli journalists to report on the army’s activities in the northern Gaza Strip. He boasted about how Israeli forces were close to the “complete evacuation” of Jabaliya, Beit Hanun and Beit Lahia, the three northernmost towns in Gaza that have been under military siege and bombardment by Israel since early October.
“There is no intention to allow residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return home,” 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 seemed like war crimes, a military spokesman said, were comments taken out of context.
But in northern Gaza, what we see on the ground is exactly what Cohen described: tens of thousands of civilians forced day after day to abandon their homes, shelters and hospitals because of bombings, shelling, artillery, quadcopter drones or armed battalions arriving. at their gates – and be sure to demolish or burn anything that’s left standing.
Residents who do not leave die of starvation, forcing some of them to survive on water and salt. Food has not entered besieged areas for more than a month and global food security experts are warning of a “high probability that famine is imminent.”
The political objective
Israel maintains that the aim of its current operation in northern Gaza, an even more brutal version of the famous “generals’ plan”, is to end Hamas’s attempts to regroup in the region. No one doubts that Israeli troops face small pockets of resistance and suffer casualties during their operations. But, as senior defense officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz shortly after the campaign began, the political sphere is pushing for an entirely different goal: annexation.
This was supported by the second high-profile confession, made last week by outgoing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Unceremoniously fired two days earlier by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant took advantage of his last hours in office to speak openly with several relatives of Israeli hostages still 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 Gaza Strip. “There is nothing more to be done in Gaza,” he said. “THE [objetivos] the main ones have been reached; My fear is that we stay there only because there is a will to stay there.
This desire seems to grow stronger every day among a growing part of the Israeli right who see it as a moment of redemption. Once northern Gaza is cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants, Israeli settlers – and the hidden architects of the “generals’ plan” – will be able to achieve what they have been shouting about since the early days of the current offensive and have been dreaming of ever since. Israel in 2005. “withdrew” from the Gaza Strip: reestablish Jewish settlements in this territory. In fact, the plans have already been drawn up.
Of course, this is not the official policy of the Israeli government, 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 the Israeli security cabinet of two new far-right ministers at the start of the week. They are Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Minister of Development of the Periphery, Negev and Galilee; and Orit Strook, Minister of Colonies and National Missions. If we were looking for the members of the Knesset (Parliament) best placed to advise on the colonization of Gaza, these people would be the perfect candidates.
Donald Trump, the missing piece
As Israel continues its 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 on the table American support for an Israeli annexation of the Strip. Gaza.
The permanent takeover of at least part of the territory seems dangerously imminent, whether with a new “deal of the century” (promoted by Trump during his first term) or with another, less grandiose agreement, which gives Netanyahu what he wants, change countries. “reduce” hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims to be aiming for an even bigger goal: sovereignty over the West Bank in 2025. Taking advantage of the current war, he has already taken significant steps to achieve his goal, imitating the successes achieved. a few years ago by the settler movement. Who’s to say Trump won’t support him?
After more than a year, international pressure has failed to stop Israel’s crazed 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 Israel’s far-right government and its voters even more than with the Trump’s victory. They now feel invincible.
It is always possible that the US president-elect 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 parting blow before his departure in January. But the likelihood of either scenario happening is low, and so it is 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 Israel’s attack on Gaza – a figure that could be much higher – but many more lives depend on it.
