Wed 4-December-2024

The Generals’ Plan: Terrifying aspects and legendary Palestinian resilience

Monday 4-November-2024

GAZA (PIC)

The Israeli occupation forces continue their barbaric assault on northern Gaza for over a month, amid executions, killings, and starvation, targeting stones, trees, and humans alike. Despite the horrific crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, the Hebrew newspaper Maariv confirmed that thousands of Palestinians remain in their homes in the Jabalia refugee camp despite the intense military pressure.

Our correspondent reports that the severity of the bombardment on Jabalia camp and its environs is almost unbelievable, with the scale of fire from Israeli aircraft and tanks being enormous. All this is aimed at forcing people to leave their homes and empty their areas, yet this seems to have failed due to the legendary resilience shown by the citizens. The correspondent confirmed that citizens prefer death in their homes over displacement and dying on the roadside, amidst hunger, oppression, and thirst.

Terrifying aspects
In this context, an Israeli university professor and researcher revealed terrifying aspects of the “Generals’ Plan” being implemented by the occupation army in Gaza, which is concealed from the international community.

Aidán Lando, a linguistics professor at Tel Aviv University, stated in an article published on the Israeli digital magazine “972+” that the plan exposes the “deceptive appearance” of what are called humanitarian considerations and lays the groundwork for Jewish settlement in the besieged sector.

The author added that the goal of the “Generals’ Plan,” unveiled last September, is very simple: to empty northern Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants. The plan itself estimates that around 300,000 people still live north of the Netzarim corridor, although the United Nations estimates the number to be approximately 400,000.

Lando affirmed that giving prior warning to the residents of northern Gaza to evacuate the area is a lie, pointing out that the first protocol of the Geneva Conventions clearly noted that warning civilians to flee does not negate the protection status of those who remain, and thus military forces are not allowed to harm them. Furthermore, the grandstanding about international humanitarian law has no effect, especially since the one leading the plan—Major General (Res.) Giora Eiland—has spent the past year calling for collective punishment against all residents of Gaza and treating the enclave as if it were Nazi Germany, while allowing the spread of diseases as a step toward victory.

Lando notes that contrary to the image portrayed by the Israeli army, which suggests that residents of the northern areas are free to move south and exit the danger zone, local testimonies reveal a terrifying reality, where anyone who leaves his/her home is at risk of being shot at by Israeli snipers or drones.

The policy of starvation
According to Lando, the continuous Israeli airstrikes and the complete blockade preventing the entry of all food and medical supplies into northern Gaza represent a deliberate policy of starvation. The World Food Program of the United Nations confirmed that Israel began blocking food supplies on October 1, just five days before the military operation. Lando described the final warning issued by Washington to Israel last month, demanding the entry of aid shipments into northern Gaza within 30 days, as ridiculous.

He noted that the starvation policy employed by Israel in northern Gaza is not limited to blocking food supplies. On October 10, the army bombed the only flour warehouse in the area, calling it a “clear war crime.”

The mastermind behind the Generals’ Plan and its supporters
According to the article, the mastermind behind the plan, as revealed by journalist Omri Maniv from Israeli Channel 12, is not the generals of the Israeli army but the right-wing organization “Tzav 9.”

Lando considers this organization responsible for burning humanitarian aid trucks before they enter Gaza, and the United States has imposed sanctions on its founder, Shlomo Sarid.

According to Maniv’s report, Sarid is the one who connected Eiland with the Forum of Reserve Leaders and Fighters, which published the plan. Among the founders of this forum is Major General (Res.) Gabi Siboni from the Misgav Institute, who hails from the now-defunct Institute for Zionist Strategy. Also among the supporters of this plan is the notorious Kohelet Forum for Policy, a right-wing think tank responsible for many of the current government’s major plans.

Lando said that contrary to the claims of military and political leaders in Israel, the plan itself constitutes a “war crime.”

Expectations
Regarding the implications of the upcoming U.S. presidential election on the ongoing events in Gaza, the writer believes it gives Israel a window of one or two months to intensify its extermination operation in northern Gaza, during which nothing will stand in its way, perhaps even afterwards. However, the writer does not expect the plan to succeed, attributing this to the resilience of the people of Gaza, whom he asserts will not comply with voluntary evacuation because they have grown accustomed to fear. He added that even the extermination tactics employed by the Israeli army, as a tool of “terror,” have not been sufficient to convince the residents of northern Gaza to evacuate voluntarily.

Six months
The prominent military analyst at Yedioth Ahronoth, Yoav Zitun, has acknowledged that the occupation forces are indeed implementing a modified version of the Generals’ Plan, aimed at dividing the Gaza Strip and isolating its northern part from the rest. He noted that this plan may take six months to achieve its objectives. Zitun asserts that the Israeli army has been executing what can be described as a partial implementation of the ‘Eiland Plan’ for weeks now, a plan previously proposed by retired Major General Giora Eiland, former head of the Israeli National Security Council, which aims to besiege strategic areas.

He adds that “despite Israeli statements denying the full implementation of this plan, the Israeli army has cut off the Jabalia area from the rest of northern Gaza via a line extending from the coast to the border.”

Reinforcement of forces and more extermination crimes
On another front, Israeli army radio revealed that the army has reinforced its forces in Jabalia, northern Gaza, by incorporating the Kfir Brigade into the Givati and 401 Brigades.

This development comes amid escalating operations by Palestinian resistance against the occupation forces in the Jabalia area. Commenting on the reason for the occupation army’s reinforcement in Jabalia, military and strategic expert Brigadier General Muhammad Al-Samadi stated that the occupation forces want to commit more killings and atrocities in Jabalia, and they need to blend armored units with mechanized infantry units.

He explained that the occupation army has struggled in its military operations in Jabalia for weeks due to the presence of armored units, noting that the entry of the Kfir Brigade—one of the elite mechanized infantry brigades—could assist the Israeli army, but losses will continue.

According to Brigadier General Al-Samadi, the Palestinian resistance in Gaza fights in a guerrilla warfare style and does not need large numbers of fighters. Additionally, its fighters hide in the remaining effective tunnel networks, while the occupation soldiers are not concealed.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation army launched a military operation in the Jabalia camp on October 6, marking the third such operation since the onset of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, following incursions in December 2023 and May 2024.

In Al-Samadi’s view, the occupation army aims, through its renewed entry into previously invaded areas, to continue the destruction, target the popular base, and practice slow killing in Gaza, which is a political objective.

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