W
hat is unfolding today is not just an Israeli assault against Gaza, in response to the painful blow which the Palestinian resistance delivered on 7 October. It is a plan aimed at altering the geographic and demographic features of Gaza and redrawing Israel’s western border. The Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant implied this when he warned that Gaza will not be the same by the time the Israeli operations are complete. Obviously, he could not be more specific because of how the plan flies in the face of international law, especially the provisions that oblige occupying powers to preserve the geographic, demographic, and historical-cultural characteristics of the territory under occupation. But from the tangible effects of the Israel war on Gaza, it is clear that Israel wants to confine the inhabitants of Gaza to the southern part of the Strip near the Egyptian border, and to turn the northern portion into a buffer zone to protect Israel from rocket fire. So, when Israel dropped leaflets telling Gazans in the north to head south, the purpose was not to protect civilians as it claimed. Otherwise, why strike all those civilian targets, from residential apartment blocks to the Baptist Hospital even before the civilians evacuated? Obviously, the point is to ensure they can never return to their homes.
According to this diabolical plan, more than 2.5 million people are to be crammed into a much narrower space than before. This will generate such a huge pressure on the Gazan border with Egypt that the border could collapse under the weight. Then, regardless of what Egypt may or may not want and in further violation of international law, the Palestinians would be transferred into Sinai, further expanding the Gazan buffer zone.
As usual, Israel fails to appreciate the strength of the Palestinian resistance which will never succumb to its designs to bury the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians’ dream for national self-determination in a sovereign state. Nor have Israeli planners taken into consideration Egypt’s strength and its ability to thwart plans that are as unacceptable to Egyptians as they are to Palestinians.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 November, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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