Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared during closed-door testimony before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on May 11, that “Israel is destroying more and more houses [in Gaza, and accordingly, Palestinians] have nowhere to return,” according to leaks leaked to the media, reports the Times of Israel on May13. “The only obvious result will be Gazans choosing to emigrate outside the [Gaza] Strip,” said Netayahu.
To those who accuse Netanyahu of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with the major aim of driving them out of their country, in order for Israel to occupy it, Netanyahu confirmed that charge.
Netanyahu noted, “But our main problem is finding countries to take [the Palestinians] in.”
That is the thinking that coheres with the decision of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, which approved a plan on May 5 to “conquer Gaza.” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told the meeting that the Security Cabinet plan provides for “conquering Gaza and holding the territories.” Netanyahu told an earlier Defense Committee meeting that Israel will be able to occupy 30% of “Judea and Samaria,” as it calls the West Bank, in the future.
This is, as well, a context for the issuance of the recent 14-page plan (see accompanying slug) that will bypass the UN and the UNRWA, and would institute a private firm, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to ostensibly provide food, medical and other aid to Palestinians in Gaza. One of the features of that plan would be to cause Palestinians to obtain food and medical provision only in the south of Gaza, which would force them to move south and leave their housing in the north of the Gaza Strip, likely on a permanent basis. Netanyahu and his associates could conquer any land abandoned by the Palestinians.
