Palestinians line up for meals in Rafah in February 2024.<\/p>\n
The Israeli<\/a> newspaper Haaretz on Sunday published an editorial <\/a>accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military of \u201cconducting an ethnic cleansing operation\u201d in northern Gaza.<\/p>\n The piece cited the paper\u2019s military correspondent, who, after\u00a0touring the area with\u00a0Israeli forces last week, concluded that the region looked as if it had been struck by a \u201cnatural disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n The editorial emphasised that the devastation was a \u201cpremeditated act of human destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n It reported that a senior officer, identified by the Guardian as Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, the commander of the 162nd Division, told reporters: \u201cMy task is to create a cleansed space…We are moving the population for its protection, in order to create freedom of action for our forces.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if the military was executing the \u2018Generals\u2019 Plan<\/a>,\u2019 which includes ethnically cleansing the area and killing any Palestinians<\/a> who remain, the officer denied knowledge of it, insisting that the army was \u201cacting on the instructions of the [Israeli military\u2019s] Southern Command and chief of staff.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that his division has been directing humanitarian aid away from the \u201ccleansed zone\u201d in northern Gaza toward the south.<\/p>\n Israeli forces have barred the entry of food, water and medicine into northern Gaza since it launched a new major offensive on the region – including in\u00a0Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun –\u00a0in early October.<\/p>\n The independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) warned on Saturday that there is\u00a0a \u201cstrong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas\u201d\u00a0 in northern Gaza.<\/p>\n Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of weaponising hunger against Gaza\u2019s population, insisting that the looming famine is \u201cman made.\u201d<\/p>\n Haaretz laid the blame squarely on Netanyahu.<\/p>\n \u201cIts important to call things by their name,\u201d Haaretz wrote, highlighting that the forced expulsion of northern Gaza\u2019s residents is being conducted under the direction of its commanders, who are \u201csubordinate to the directives of the political leadership: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u201d and his defence minister.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of talking about the \u2018Generals\u2019 Plan,\u2019 we should be talking about Netanyahu\u2019s Orders,\u201d the editorial reads.<\/p>\n