Widespread concerns about Israel’s intention to carry out ethnic cleansing in Gaza have been confirmed after the Israeli military announced that Palestinians will not be permitted to return to their homes in the northern part of the besieged Territory.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Brigadier General Itzik Cohen stated explicitly that “there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes”. The General added that humanitarian aid would only be permitted to enter southern Gaza, claiming there were “no more civilians left” in the north.
International humanitarian law experts have warned that such actions constitute war crimes, specifically the forcible transfer of populations and the use of food as a weapon. The announcement is the first official acknowledgment from Israel that it is systematically removing Palestinians from Gaza.
The revelation comes as Omer Bartov, an Israeli-American professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, warns that what we are witnessing in Gaza is the final stage of genocide. Bartov points specifically to Israel’s operations in Jabalia, where over 1,000 people have been killed in the past three weeks, as further evidence of a “genocidal campaign”.
Other cases of genocidal intent include statements published in mainstream Israeli media and made by senior political and military figures. A notable example appeared in Yedioth Ahronoth on 9 October, when it was declared that Israel will “turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in.” In another article, it was explicitly stated that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.” Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has also expressed genocidal intent by calling Palestinians Amaleks, a term used to describe a war of annihilation in the Bible.
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These statements of intent have been matched by systematic actions on the ground, where a concerted effort has been made to destroy the foundations of Palestinian life in Gaza. Universities, schools, hospitals, mosques, museums, public buildings, housing and infrastructure have been systematically targeted and destroyed. This pattern of destruction, combined with the forced displacement of populations and the prevention of their return, is being viewed by genocide experts as evidence of genocidal conduct
Israel’s actions align with what is known as “The General’s Plan”, drafted by retired General, Giora Eiland, which he describes as a strategy “to empty that region of civilians through military pressure and starvation”. The plan, he says, is “a first step toward annexing the Strip north of the Netzarim Corridor” which will eventually lead to Jewish settlement of the area.
The Israeli army has previously denied attempting to force the remaining population of northern Gaza to flee southward during its month-long renewed offensive and tightened siege. However, rights groups and aid agencies have warned that Israel has been executing a war of annihilation whereby civilians are given a deadline to leave, after which anyone remaining is treated as a combatant.
The UN estimated last month that approximately 400,000 civilians were unable or unwilling to follow Israeli evacuation orders. Recent social media footage has shown dozens of displaced people carrying children and belongings walking south through devastated areas of Gaza City, with many reporting they had not eaten for days.
Under international law, the forcible transfer of civilian populations is considered a war crime and a form of ethnic cleansing. The Fourth Geneva Convention specifically prohibits individual or mass forcible transfers of protected persons from occupied territory, regardless of their motive.