Netanyahu considering plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza to besiege Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defence, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. (Menahem Kahana / Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in order to lay siege to Hamas and force the release of hostages.

It is unclear how many Palestinians remain north of the so-called Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza in two, but estimates run into the hundreds of thousands. The plan does not mention whether, when, or how civilians would be allowed to return to northern Gaza. After nearly a year of war, with no part of Gaza immune from Israeli airstrikes, Palestinians have been increasingly unwilling to heed Israeli demands to relocate.

The idea comes from a group of retired Israeli military generals, who have formally presented it to the Israeli cabinet and a powerful parliamentary committee. The goal, they say, is to use siege tactics to starve Hamas fighters and force them to release 101 hostages still held in the territory.

“Those who leave will receive food and water,” Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli military general who is spearheading the proposal, says in a slickly produced video posted online earlier this month. “But in a week the entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become military territory, and this military territory as far as we are concerned, no supplies will enter it.”

Israeli national broadcaster Kan, a CNN affiliate, reported on Sunday that Netanyahu, in a closed-door meeting with the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the plan “makes a lot of sense.”

“It is one of the plans being considered, but there are several others,” he said, according to Kan. “We are committed to dismantling the civilian control of Hamas.”

It is unclear when the meeting took place.

An Israeli official confirmed the veracity of that quote, but said, “seeing it positively does not mean adopting it.”

The official said that the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ strategic division will in the coming days present to Netanyahu “several alternatives” for how to “deprive Hamas of civilian control capabilities in Gaza.”

Calls to adopt plan

In a letter obtained by CNN, 27 members of Knesset – including three sitting ministers – have written to the government urging them to adopt it.

The public face of the proposal is Eiland, who had an illustrious career rising to the rank of major general and serving as head of the prime minister’s National Security Council from 2004 to 2006.

“The reality today in Gaza is that Sinwar is really not stressed,” he says in the video. “The right thing to do is to inform the approximately 300,000 residents who remained in the northern Gaza Strip, citizen residents, of the following: Not that we are suggesting you leave the northern Gaza Strip, we are ordering you to leave the northern Gaza Strip.”

“In a week, the entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become military territory. And this military territory, as far as we are concerned, no supplies will enter it. That is why 5,000 terrorists who are in this situation, they can either surrender or starve.”

“Dictators like Sinwar are not afraid of military pressure. They are afraid of two other things: a governmental alternative and the existence of an angry mob that can overthrow them.”

The Commanders and Reserve Fighters Forum, a group of retired and reservist commanders, has championed the plan “to bring about a de facto change in the war situation.”

It is not clear what the senior leadership of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) thinks of the plan. When asked for comment on the proposal, the IDF referred CNN to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The plan does not tackle the question of whether Palestinians could ever return to northern Gaza, one of its backers told CNN.

“It will all depend on what will happen in the future,” Retired Major-General Gershon Hacohen said in a text message. “But there is no indication in the plan that they will never be able to go back.”

The generals’ group claims to have presented the plan to the Israeli cabinet “several times.” The Prime Minister’s Office would not confirm to CNN whether those meetings took place.

The plan has been presented to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Meirav Cohen, a member of Knesset from the centrist Yesh Atid party, lambasted the government for allowing aid trucks into Gaza.

“The only threat that they are facing is obesity,” she said during a meeting with the pressure group, including Giora Eiland. “Is this how we will bring our hostages back home? So I think that the plan that Giora and other commanders presented here is very smart. It sets clear rules. We have to implement it.”

In the letter addressed to Netanyahu and his fellow ministers, 27 of the 120 members of Knesset lament that “we have not yet reached the finish line in any of the goals defined by the War Cabinet.”

They call on the government to implement Eiland’s plan in northern Gaza. “After carrying out the program in this area, it is possible to carry it out in other parts of the strip,” they say.