Dozens of Israeli ministers and Coalition MKs demand Israeli takeover of northern Gaza

The 27 coalition members urged the prime minister to adopt the “Generals’ Plan” of a group of generals designed to put real pressure on Hamas.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Dozens of MKs and ministers from the coalition wrote a letter Wednesday urging the prime minister to back a plan written by a group of generals that calls for a full Israeli takeover of northern Gaza in order to put real pressure on Hamas and win the war.

The 27 ministers and Coalition members have asked Benjamin Netanyahu to convene the security cabinet and adopt the “Generals’ Plan” that had been presented to the public by the Commanders and Reserve Soldiers Forum a few weeks ago.

“The recent cabinet decision regarding the permanent presence of our soldiers in the Philadelphi Corridor requires, in our opinion, a strategic complement with another action,” they wrote.

The Generals’ Plan was written by respected reserve IDF commanders, including Generals Giora Eiland (former national security adviser and ex-head of IDF Operations), Gershon Hacohen (former commander of the IDF military colleges) and Avi Mizrachi (ex-head of Central Command).

The proposal says that the approximately 300,000 Palestinian residents in the northern section of the Strip, including Gaza City and its environs, should be given a week’s warning to evacuate along two humanitarian corridors secured by the IDF.

This is about 40% of the coastal enclave, and has been surrounded by the IDF for many months already.

It would be declared a closed military zone, Eiland said in an explanatory video released earlier this month, and “nothing would be allowed in.”

The result would be that “The 5,000 Hamas fighters in this area can then either decide to surrender or die of starvation.”

If they decide to fight instead, the IDF would be able to deal with them.

Losing the whole north, Eiland noted, “will create real pressure” on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, “who will understand that what happened [there] can happen later, whether in Rafah or other places” in Gaza.

Another part of the plan is for the army to take over all food and aid distribution to the civilian population instead of the current situation in which Hamas confiscates it all by force, both for its own use and to enrich itself to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars by selling what had been donated for free in order to keep Gazans from supposed starvation.

As the MKs’ letter stated, Hamas’ control of the humanitarian aid “gives it full control over the population [and] over the recruitment of fighters, in addition to strengthening its fighting forces and bringing in enormous economic profit.”

In recapping the main points of the plan, those who signed the letter stated that they believe, as these generals do, that these are the steps that will enable the government to finally achieve its stated war goals of rescuing the hostages, destroying Hamas’ ability to govern, and ensuring that Gaza will not threaten Israel in the future.