Document leaked to Sikha Mekomit and Calcalist news sites details plans for permanent ethnic cleaning of Gaza population into Sinai desert – and measures to ‘motivate’ them to comply
An alleged Israeli Ministry of Intelligence document leaked to the Sikha Mekomit and Calcalist Israeli news sites plans the forcible and permanent removal of all Gaza’s people to the Sinai desert in Egypt – and recommends measures to ‘motivate them to agree’.
The document puts a whole new context on the events of this month that Israel has used as justification for its mass bombardment of Gaza, killing thousands of civilians of whom around half were children.
According to Mekomit the document, dated 13 October, confirms earlier plans by Netanyahu-linked think-tanks to establish new ‘tent cities’ and a ‘sterile zone’ on Egypt’s territory to keep them away from what would become a new larger Israeli territory:
An official document of the Ministry of Intelligence recommends that the defense establishment carry out a full transfer of all residents of the Gaza Strip to northern Sinai, as the preferable of three alternatives it proposes regarding the future of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip at the end of the war.
The existence of the document does not necessarily indicate that its recommendations are being considered by the defense establishment. Despite its name, the Ministry of Intelligence is not responsible for every intelligence body, but rather independently prepares studies and policy papers, which are distributed to the government and security agencies for review but are not binding. The Ministry’s annual budget is about NIS 25 million and its influence is considered relatively small.
The document recommends that Israel act to “evacuate the Gaza population to Sinai” during the war: establish tent cities and new cities in northern Sinai that will absorb the expelled population, and then “create a sterile area of several kilometers inside Egypt and not allow the population to return to activity or residence near the Israeli border.” At the same time, countries around the world, led by the United States, must be mobilized to implement the move.
The ten-page document, dated October 13, features the logo of the Intelligence Ministry headed by Minister Gila Gamliel of the [far right government party] Likud. A source in the Ministry of Intelligence confirmed to Local Conversation that the document was authentic, distributed to the defense establishment by the ministry’s policy division, and “was not supposed to reach the media.”
The document unequivocally and explicitly recommends the transfer of civilians from Gaza as the desired result of the war. This week it was reported in Calcalist and is published here in full. The transfer plan is divided into several stages: In the first stage, action must be taken so that the population of Gaza “evacuates southward,” while the air strikes are concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip. In the second stage, a ground incursion into Gaza will begin, leading to the occupation of the entire Gaza Strip, from north to south, and to the “cleansing of underground bunkers from Hamas fighters.”
The document goes on to recommend that the Israeli government run a campaign to enlist the collusion of other national governments so that the ethnic cleansing does not,
incite and blacken Israel
and a parallel campaign persuade Gazans to blame the loss of land on God and Hamas.
A ministry source told the publication that the organisation still ‘stands behind the plan’ even after it was outed.
Read more here.
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