JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.
Israel has issued many evacuation orders for the north throughout the yearlong war, the most recent of which was Sunday. 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 the Gaza Strip, 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 international media by its chief architect, who says the plan is the only way to break Hamas in the north and pressure it to release the remaining hostages.
The plan calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration without Hamas, splitting the Gaza Strip 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 is being considered.
An Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip killed a family of eight, Palestinian medical officials said on Sunday, as Israeli forces battled militants in the territory’s north and airstrikes in pursuit of Hezbollah destroyed a century-old market in southern Lebanon.
The strike in Gaza late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing parents and their six children, ages 8 to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1.
Israeli airstrikes destroy Ottoman-era market in Lebanon Israeli airstrikes destroyed an Ottoman-era market in Lebanon’s southern city of Nabatiyeh overnight, killing at least one person and wounding four more. Lebanon’s Civil Defence said it battled fires in 12 residential buildings and 40 shops in the market, which dates back to 1910.
In a separate incident, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Sunday when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.
It said the operation had been coordinated with UN peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side. There was no immediate Israeli military comment. At least 2,255 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, including more than 1,400 people since September, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The US will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence battery and troops to Israel, the Pentagon said on Sunday, even as Iran warned Washington to keep American military forces out of Israel. Reportedly, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin authorised the deployment of the THAAD battery at the direction of President Joe Biden.
The peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one of its positions early Sunday morning and destroyed the main gate. Israeli strikes have wounded five peacekeepers in recent days. Netanyahu on Sunday called for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of ‘providing a human shield’ to Hezbollah.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said in a video addressed to the UN secretary-general, who has been banned from entering Israel.