Israel’s true objective in northern Gaza? Removing Palestinians – and annexing the territory | Ben Reiff

Settlers have been dreaming of a return to Gaza for nearly 20 years - and Trump's presidency may only embolden them

Last week, Brig Gen Itzik Cohen, a senior IDF officer, quietly admitted what the international community has long been reluctant to acknowledge: that Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, and deceiving the world about its true objectives in the besieged territory. He made the admission during a closed briefing to Israeli journalists last Tuesday regarding the army's activities in the north of the strip. Israel's forces, he boasted, were getting closer to the complete evacuation" of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya - Gaza's three northernmost cities, which have been under intense Israeli bombardment since early October. There is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes," Cohen continued, before adding that his clear orders" were to create a cleansed space".

The army hastened to distance itself from Cohen's comments after they garnered the attention of the international media: what may have sounded like war crimes, a spokesperson clarified, was merely a remark taken out of context. Yet what we see playing out on the ground in northern Gaza is exactly as Cohen described it: tens of thousands of civilians forced out of homes, shelters and hospitals, day after day, by airstrikes, artillery fire, quadcopter drones or armed battalions arriving at their door - who make sure to demolish or burn whatever is left behind.

Ben Reiff is a senior editor at +972 magazine

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