IDF planning to divide Gaza up into cantons, encouraging Gazans to migrate en masse – report

Leaked map reportedly shows Israel’s plans to divide Gaza Strip up in final stage of upcoming operation, creating isolated cantons separated by IDF zones.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The IDF is planning to clear large swaths of the Gaza Strip of its civilian population, creating military zones that would separate isolated cantons across the coastal enclave, according to a leaked map reportedly taken from the army’s plans for a new ground campaign.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Security Cabinet signed off on a proposed expansion of the IDF’s ground operations in the Gaza Strip, a move that would culminate in the complete takeover of the coastal enclave and mass relocation of Gazans within the area.

On Saturday, The Times reported that it had obtained a leaked map taken from the plans for Israel’s new Gaza campaign.

The map, which is said to have been leaked by diplomats who were briefed on the details of the plan, shows the Gaza Strip divided into seven separate areas, including three cantons for the civilian population and three exclusively military zones.

According to the IDF’s expanded Gaza operation plan, Israel will take and hold territory across the Gaza Strip, effectively placing the entire coastal enclave under Israeli control.

Currently, the IDF directly controls security buffer zones around the periphery of the Strip as well as the entire Rafah area. In total, the IDF currently holds some 30% of the Strip.

In addition, Israeli forces are estimated to be operating in additional areas across Gaza, which brings the total area impacted by IDF operations to around half of the Strip.

If implemented, however, the new plan would not only place the entire area under Israeli control; it would require the mass evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans, with the population concentrated in three separate civilian zones.

Each civilian zone would be flanked to the north and south by military zones, where civilians would be barred from entering except with special permission, the report said.

A special security apparatus established in the military zones will screen goods and travelers who have been granted permission to move from one civilian canton to another.

While Israel has already established a buffer zone along Gaza’s eastern frontier with Israel, the southern and northern edges of the Gaza Strip would be evacuated – including Rafah in the south and Beit Lahia in the north – and turned into military zones distancing Gaza’s population from the Israeli border.

The area around Gaza City would be left as one civilian canton, while central Gaza, including Nuseirat and Deir al Balah, would be established as a second, separate canton, separated by a military zone established across the narrow neck of the Gaza Strip, near the Netzarim Corridor.

A third civilian zone would cover the Khan Younis district, including the al-Muwasi humanitarian zone, with a new IDF security zone to separate the Khan Younis sector from central Gaza.

IDF forces increased their ground and air operations against Hamas forces in Gaza over the weekend, though sources in Israel’s Security Cabinet have reportedly said that a final decision on the full implementation of the Gaza plan is likely to be made on Sunday night.