The Israeli military is preventing residents of Jabalia in northern Gaza from returning to their homes as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
The report said the military is blocking the return of approximately 50,000 residents of Jabalia due to pressure from Israeli political leadership. It said the Israeli army acknowledged it’s carrying out a partial implementation of the “general’s plan,” which calls for a complete ethnic cleansing of all areas of Gaza north of the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land controlled by the Israeli military.
As part of the ethnic cleansing campaign, Israel has cut off virtually all aid deliveries into northern Gaza since the beginning of October, and no aid has reached Jabalia or the areas around it. The Haaretz report said senior Israeli military and Shin Bet officials acknowledged the general’s plan violates international law but are claiming the partial implementation does not, even though it has involved a starvation blockade and large-scale attacks on civilians.
The report said residents of Jabalia “will only be allowed to return after Israeli security control over the area is complete, including designating parts of it demilitarized buffer zones.” However, the general’s plan does not say Palestinians can return to the north once they’re cleansed, and Israeli soldiers have been destroying buildings in Jabalia, so they have nowhere to go back to.
Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian journalist who closely follows the social media activity of Israeli soldiers, shared a video on X of a bulldozer destroying a building in Jabalia that was posted by an Israeli soldier. “Making sure they have nowhere to return to,” the post says.
The completion of the general’s plan could pave the way for Jewish settlements in Gaza, an idea favored by many Israeli ministers and members of the Knesset. At a “resettle Gaza” conference held on Monday, May Golan, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and the minister for social equality, called for a new “Nakba” in Gaza.