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A New Israeli Plan for Gaza [1]

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Date: 2025-05-06

In Israel Announces New Campaign in Gaza aimed at Complete Occupation and Confining Palestinians to Southern Enclave, Professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan writes in his blog Informed Comment that the Israeli “war cabinet” has agreed to an escalation of the war on Gaza.

the spokesman for the Israeli army, Effie Defrin, announced Monday night that the army is preparing to implement a new military operation in the Gaza Strip, called “Gideon’s Chariots.” It will, he said, inaugurate a broad attack and will displace most of the inhabitants of Gaza.

Cole gives details:

ir would involve expanding the direct Israeli military occupation to additional areas of the Strip and a new wave of expulsions of the civilian population from the north and center, in preparation for corralling the vast majority of the 2.2 million Palestinians there in the south. The pretext here is an attempt to divide the civilian population from the militants.

Cole also reports that Defrin insists ‘the primary aim of the new operation is to return the hostages and to put an end to Hamas.”

Defrin said that virtually all reservists would be called up for this campaign. He also said that the new operation would involve further bombardment, the assassination of saboteurs, and the dismantling of infrastructure. He said that the army, which has completely leveled the southern city of Rafah, was looking at it as a model for treating the remaining urban areas of the Strip.

Cole describes what has already happened in Rafah:

It had a prewar population of 250,000, but there apparently isn’t a building left standing. That would be like pushing everyone out of Toledo, Ohio, or St. Petersburg, Fl., into the wilderness while denying them food and water, and then bombing all the buildings in the city to smithereens.

Cole further reports “it is expected that this massive military occupation and further ethnic cleansing of Gaza will be launched after Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East.” He also reports Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced “a plan for Israeli authorities to control all disbursement of aid in Gaza, a plan rejected by the NGOs attempting to distribute aid.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/6/2320844/-A-New-Israeli-Plan-for-Gaza?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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