Israel Launches Ground Invasion of Gaza as Calls for Ceasfire Fall of Deaf Ears.
Official documents reveal plans for a potential “full population transfer” of Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Israel’s Intelligence Ministry said the documents were “not supposed to reach media.”
Just over three weeks after Israel declared a state of war against Hamas in retaliation for the attack on October 7 that killed 1,400 people, Israeli military forces announced “expanded ground operations” in the Gaza Strip. Reuters has reported that Israeli troops and armored vehicles have been operating in Gaza since Friday, October 27.
This comes as official documents obtained from Israel’s Intelligence Ministry recommending to “evacuate the civilian population [of Gaza] to the Sinai” were made public on October 13 in reporting by +972 Magazine. The documents have also been independently verified by Wikileaks. The Intelligence Ministry has also confirmed the authenticity of the documents, adding that they “[were] not supposed to reach media.”
While the existence of the documents does not mean that Israeli Forces are using them as a layout for their plans, +972 has reported that “the fact that an Israeli government ministry has prepared such a detailed proposal amid a large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip…reflects how the idea of forced population transfer is being raised to the level of official policy discussions.”
Additionally, the recommendations in the documents include several policies that the current Israeli administration has already adopted. For example, the first stage of action is the documents is to force the population of Gaza to “evacuate south” while Israeli forces conduct air strikes on northern Gaza. The second phase involves a “ground incursion into gaza” followed by the “occupation of the entire Strip”. Phase one has already been carried out, and phase two has just begun.
According to +972 reporting, “The document proposes promoting a campaign targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza that will “motivate them to accept this plan” and lead them to give up their land.” Reporting also explains that after Gaza’s population is transfered to Egypt’s Siani Peninsula, “Palestinian civilians will be moved into Egyptian territory, and not be allowed to return.”
Since declaring war, Israeli forces have expanded their siege on Gaza to an all-out blockade by cutting off running water and electricity to Gaza entirely. However, the Associated Press has reported that an aid convoy was finally able to enter Gaza on Sunday, October 29. Communications like cell service and internet connection were also restored to Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people on Sunday following intense Israeli air strikes.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have conducted massive bombing campaigns in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 8,000 Palestinians, mostly women and minors, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The international charity Save the Children has released a statement saying that in just three weeks, Israeli air strikes have killed 3,195 children in Gaza. It also says that an additional 1,000 children have been reported missing in Gaza, assumed buried under the rubble. As a result, the death toll is likely much higher than what is being reported.
According to the statement, “The number of children reported killed in just three weeks in Gaza is more than the number killed in armed conflict globally—across more than 20 countries—over the course of a whole year, for the last three years.” The statement also says that since October 7, 33 children have been killed in the West Bank (which is Palestinian territory that is under Israeli military occupation), and 29 children have been killed in Israel.
Save the Children Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said, “These are grave violations of epic proportions. A ceasefire is the only way to ensure their safety. The international community must put people before politics—every day spent debating is leaving children killed and injured. Children must always be protected, especially when seeking safety in schools and hospitals.”
President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, who governs parts of the occupied West Bank territory, has said “Our people in the Gaza Strip are facing a war of genocide and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces in full view of the entire world.”
On October 16, several progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives including Representatives Cori Bush (MO-01), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and Ilhan Omar (MN-05) introduced the Ceasefire Now resolution “urging the Biden Administration to call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine, to send humanitarian aid and assistance to Gaza, and to save as many lives as possible.”
However, getting the resolution passed is a long shot at this point, as White House spokesperson John Kirby has recently argued that a ceasefire at this stage “only benefits Hamas.”
In addition, even though U.N Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that, “A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in front of our eyes,” the United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow for lifesaving aid to be delivered to millions of people in Gaza on October 18.
According to UN News, “While 12 of the Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the resolution, one (United States) voted against it, and two (Russia and the United Kingdom) abstained.” It continues explaining that “A ‘no’ vote from any of the five permanent members of the Council stops action on any measure put before it. The body’s permanent members are China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
This structure tends to result in gridlock that prohibits the United Nations from passing resolutions condemning countries that are permanent Security Council members (or their allies) for violating international law.