Israel’s new tactics in north Gaza stoke fears of ethnic cleansing campaign

Palestinian officials, witnesses and journalists are accusing Israel of stepping up a campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where civilians under constant bombardment are being denied the right to their homes, food, water, medical support and safe travel.

They reject the Israeli army’s claims that its push, which began in early October, is simply aimed at closing in on Hamas fighters in the area, since tens of thousands of civilians remain there.

No aid has been allowed in since then, heightening fears of famine and disease.

According to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), “Israeli authorities are preventing Palestinians [in north Gaza] from accessing the essentials for their survival, including water. Humanitarians are not able to do their work in safety.”

Anas al-Sharif, Al Jazeera’s reporter in northern Gaza, said on Friday, “We are being annihilated in front of the world.”

Earlier this week, as reported by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Israel’s military spokesperson Itzik Cohen said no one would be allowed to return to their homes in the devastated reaches of Gaza’s north. Cohen also reportedly said aid would only be allowed to enter Gaza’s south.

Israeli officials have since tried to distance themselves from those statements.

But aid agencies, rights groups and observers say Israel appears to be employing a so-called “General’s Plan”, a controversial strategy touted by a retired member of the Israeli military, suggesting the army forcibly empties Gaza’s north of its entire population and regard anyone remaining as an enemy combatant.

At the time of publishing, the Israeli army had not replied to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Hamas has reportedly accused Israel of “massacres which amount to ethnic cleansing, alongside a complete siege on northern Gaza”.

UNRWA said 69,000 people remain in Gaza’s north. Other estimates suggest the current population there is closer to 100,000.

What is life like in northern Gaza?

Since early October, northern Gaza has been in a state of continuous siege.

No food or aid has been allowed in. The Israeli army is laying waste to what remained of the towns and villages that had once been home to thousands of Palestinian families.

Tens of thousands of civilians still in the area are trying to survive daily threats of bombing, shelling, sniper fire and the prospect of imminent starvation.

The Israeli army is trying to force them out, sending evacuation orders via social media messages and flyers. Overhead warnings are reportedly delivered by drones, urging them to flee south where conditions are relatively safer but still perilous. Food is also scarce in the south, bombings are relentless and hospitals are barely functioning.

“Across northern Gaza, there is no way of telling where the destruction starts or ends,” said Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer at UNRWA, from the agency’s mission in Gaza’s north.

“As far as the eye can see, homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, restaurants – everything has been completely flattened. Only the carcass of [Gaza City] is left, with the entire society becoming a graveyard.”

Despite Israeli claims to the contrary, aid agencies insist that all attempts to deliver food to people in the besieged areas of the North Gaza governorate have been blocked by the Israeli authorities.

Healthcare conditions remain critical.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning medical facility in the besieged north, has been hit by Israeli fire twice in the past week. The delivery of life-saving supplies to the al-Awda Hospital has been denied, agencies have said.

The conditions are “beyond appalling”, Wateridge told Al Jazeera via WhatsApp.

She said that at a school that has been converted into a makeshift shelter, “sewage is streaming down the walls”.

“If people are not killed by bombs today, they will be killed by disease tomorrow,” she said.

A mass grave in a yard is prepared for the burial of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, November 5, 2024 [Retuers]

What are experts, rights groups and politicians saying?

Analysts interviewed by Al Jazeera have termed Israel’s plan to forcibly displace thousands of people from northern Gaza as “ethnic cleansing”.

“The world must stop standing by while Israel uses siege, starvation and atrocity crimes to forcibly displace and destroy civilians and civilian life,” said Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa’s director, Heba Morayet, in a statement.

Jeremy Corbyn, long a supporter of Palestinian rights and the former leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, said Israel’s campaign in the north was a “textbook definition of ethnic cleansing”.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said hospitals in northern Gaza are being “targeted with an intensity rarely seen in modern warfare”.

Rohan Talbot, at the Medical Aid Palestinians charity, posted a map of new evacuation orders on X on Friday. “The ethnic cleansing of Northern Gaza was the proof of concept. The push on Gaza City is next. The genocide won’t stop until it is forced to stop.”

Can people leave northern Gaza?

Gaza itself remains an effective prison, with residents blocked by the Israeli army from leaving the enclave to seek food, medicine and shelter – or to escape its blockade.

But even moving around within Gaza is filled with risk and challenges. Functioning transport remains out of reach for most. Some families have travelled by foot in a desperate attempt to flee, a few using donkey carts during their displacement.

They are attempting to reach the Netzarim Corridor, which can take hours. Once there, they wait even longer to begin the protracted process of passing Israeli security checks to reach the south.

But many in Gaza’s north believe fleeing south would not offer much respite.

“What is there [in the south] for families to leave for?” Wateridge said. “Disease is spreading; there is limited food; thousands of families are crammed on top of each other in horrendous shelter conditions.

“At this point, the reality is 2.2 million people are exhausted from 13 months of displacement, and trapped within pockets of the Gaza Strip, prevented from fleeing to any real safety.”

Majd Salem, a six-month-old malnourished Palestinian baby who weighed 3.5kg (7 pounds 11 ounces) when he was born and gained just 300 grams (10 ounces) in six months, lies on a bed as he receives treatment at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip [File: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]

What’s the Netzarim corridor?

Israeli troops have split the enclave in two, and control all travel between each side.

The four-kilometre (2.5-mile) deep and heavily fortified Netzarim Corridor runs across the Gaza Strip, stretching from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean.

The establishment of the corridor that bisects Gaza occurred in stages, beginning in October and concluding with its formal establishment in late November.

What’s the ‘General’s Plan’?

In April, retired National Security Adviser General Giora Eiland drafted the outline of a plan that would essentially cleanse northern Gaza of its entire population under the guise of fighting a resurgent Hamas in the region.

Under its terms, the population of northern Gaza would be given one week to flee, before being considered enemy combatants by Israeli forces.

From that point, all access to the isolated north would be halted in a further bid to pressure Hamas to release the remaining Israeli captives, but also to gain indefinite control over northern Gaza, effectively dividing the Gaza Strip.

Washington has said it rejects the plan, while Israel officially denies it is carrying it out.

The Times of Israel reported that in mid-September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering the plan. But when asked by US officials to publicly reject the plan, Netanyahu is reported to have demurred.

Retired Israeli General Giora Eiland [File: Ariel Schalit/AP]