The U.S. deadline to improve humanitarian conditions in northern Gaza has expired, and the IDF’s mass bombing and starvation campaign to expel its residents has worsened. The IDF clearly stated — residents won’t be allowed to return.

In other words: ethnically cleansing the area.

After the IDF already split Gaza in two with an ever expanding Netzarim corridor (named after a settlement evicted from Gaza in 2005), it built another corridor in the north, cutting Gaza City off from Jabalya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. A siege within a siege within a siege.

In October the IDF drastically decreased the amount of aid entering northern Gaza, publicly stating none would enter north of Gaza City for over a month. Attempting to justify this to the public, the IDF claimed there were no civilians in the area — a blatant and abhorrent lie.

Adding to this, the mass-bombing campaign in northern Gaza has killed dozens on average every day over the past month. The so-called “precise” bombings were made worse by the use of imprecise-by-definition artillery shells. A deliberate intent to destroy, as much as possible.

Last week, IDF Brig-Gen Itzik Cohen, who currently commands the division holding Jabalya, told Israeli news outlets “there are no civilians left” north of the new corridor, yet 36 Gazans were killed in an IDF strike on Sunday in Jabalya. The UN estimates tens of thousands of civilians are still there. Photos show masses fleeing.

The IDF tendency to consider an area “empty of civilians” once it calls citizens to evacuate is not new, and shouldn’t be treated as such. We saw similar “kill zones” in 2008 and 2014. Once the leaflets are dropped, anyone left in the area essentially becomes a legitimate target.

“[Our brigade commander] went so far as to say this was war and in war as in war, no consideration of civilians was to be taken. You shoot anyone you see. I’m paraphrasing […] but the gist of the matter was very clear.”
Operation “Cast Lead” | Testimony 10 | Gaza | 2009

“They told us: “There aren’t supposed to be any civilians there. If you spot someone, shoot.” Whether it posed a threat or not wasn’t a question. […] they made it clear that there were no uninvolved civilians.”
First Sergeant | Infantry | 2014

“This is the default. No civilians are supposed to be in the area, that’s the perspective. We spotted someone in a window, so they fired and killed him,” one soldier told Oren Ziv for +972 Magazine in July. Kill zones are nothing new, all that’s really changed is the scale.

Brig-Gen Itzik Cohen also made clear that there’s “no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes.” Forced transfer, which also lays the groundwork for possible resettlement.

The IDF is ethnically cleansing northern Gaza.

Over the past month and a half, and indeed since the start of the war, the IDF spokesperson has barely given any information regarding the relentless aerial bombardments that have claimed the lives of so many. Yet when the IDF does comment on specific incidents, their statements are often telling.

At least 100 people were killed in a single IDF strike last month on a residential building in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. The IDF said the building was bombed after 4 soldiers were killed by an IED nearby, and a “lookout” was detected on its roof. A 5-story building, around 200 people — bombed for a “lookout.”

About 20 of those who died in the bombing were children. Dozens were trapped under the rubble, some of whom were taking shelter after being driven out of the bombed areas of Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun. For a lookout. But what does the IDF mean when they say someone is a “lookout”?

A soldier who took part in the 2014 ground invasion of Gaza, told us how two women in an orchard were targeted and killed for allegedly being “lookouts,” because they were seen “with cellphones, talking, walking” and it was assumed that they could see the forces.

“… They check the bodies, and it was two women […] and they were unarmed. He came back and we moved on, and they were listed as terrorists. They were fired at — so of course, they must have been terrorists.” Infantry | Southern Gaza Strip | 2014

We see the same posthumous branding of people as terrorists today, too.

“The feeling in the war room, and this is a softened version, was that every person we killed, we counted him as a terrorist,” one IDF officer told +972 Magazine in July.

The IDF also claimed the casualty numbers from Beit Lahia are unreliable and “do not match the information in the IDF’s possession.” The justifications never change, nor do the claims of inflated numbers of casualties, only the dates and locations do.

Children were wiped off the face of the earth, rescuers desperately worked to move rubble by hand, and the IDF responded that “a number of photos that were broadcast on media channels were published in the past and are unrelated to the current attack.”
100% audacity, 0% shame.

We are seeing the results of years of dehumanization in which people are reduced to numbers. Reduced to “lookouts” killed in “precision strikes” with “conflicting reports” of mass “collateral damage.” Just a few of the myriad phrases and concepts we use to try and clean our conscience.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Breaking the Silence.)