Netanyahu mulls plan to starve out Palestinians in northern Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, a plan if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.

The plan proposed to Netanyahu and the Israeli parliament by a group of retired generals would escalate the pressure, giving Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, before declaring it a closed military zone.

Those who remain would be considered 'combatants' — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them — and denied food, water, medicine and fuel, according to a copy of the plan given to The Associated Press by its chief architect.

The plan calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration without Palestinian resistance group Hamas, splitting Gaza in two.

There has been no decision by the government to fully carry out the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” and it is unclear how strongly it's being considered.

Parts of the plan are already in implemented

When asked if the evacuation orders in northern Gaza marked the first stages of the “Generals' Plan,” Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said no.

“We have not received a plan like that,” he added.

But one official with knowledge of the matter said parts of the plan are already being implemented, without specifying which parts. A second official, who is Israeli, said Netanyahu “had read and studied” the plan, “like many plans that have reached him throughout the war,” but didn't say whether any of it had been adopted.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because the plan isn't supposed to be discussed publicly.

No trucks of food, water or medicine have entered the north since September 30, according to the UN and the website of the Israeli military agency overseeing humanitarian aid crossings.

Nowhere safe

Human rights groups say the plan would likely starve civilians and that it flies in the face of international law, which prohibits using food as a weapon and forcible transfers.

Accusations that Israel is intentionally limiting food to Gaza are central to the genocide case brought against it at the International Court of Justice.

So far, very few Palestinians have heeded the latest evacuation order. Some are older, sick or afraid to leave their homes, but many fear there’s nowhere safe to go and that they will never be allowed back.

Israel has prevented those who fled earlier in the war from returning.

“All Gazans are afraid of the plan,” said Jomana Elkhalili, a 26-year-old Palestinian aid worker for Oxfam living in Gaza City with her family.

“Still, they will not flee. They will not make the mistake again ... We know the place there is not safe,” she said, referring to southern Gaza, where most of the population is huddled in dismal tent camps and air strikes often hit shelters. “That’s why people in the north say it’s better to die than to leave.”

The copy of the plan shared with the AP says that if the strategy is successful in northern Gaza, it could then be replicated in other areas, including tent camps further to the south sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.