Netanyahu Orders Israeli Military To ‘Ethnically Cleanse’ Gaza City

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to ethnically cleanse Gaza City, approving a desperate plan to fully occupy urban areas and displace Palestinians en masse, despite warnings that this escalation will likely result in the deaths of remaining captives held by Hamas. This ruthless strategy, seemingly designed to eliminate any hope of negotiation, reflects Netanyahu’s apparent willingness to sacrifice hostages in a bid to crush resistance after failed famine and pressure campaigns.

In a stark admission, Israeli army chief of staff Eyal Zamir cautioned the security cabinet that delving deeper into sensitive zones heightens the peril to captives, stating, “The deeper we go into sensitive areas, the greater the risk to the hostages,” yet he endorsed the move amid growing desperation. The cabinet’s approval comes as previous tactics, including imposed starvation, have failed to force Hamas’s hand, pushing Israel toward total conquest of Gaza City where hostages might be located. This high-stakes gamble not only endangers lives but also risks international backlash, underscoring the government’s prioritization of territorial control over humanitarian concerns in the ongoing conflict.

Thegrayzone.com reports: The Hostages and Missing Families Forum that advocates for the captives went even further, proclaiming that “the Israeli government sentenced the living hostages to death and the fallen hostages to disappearance” by announcing a takeover of Gaza.

Hamas, too, has cautioned that the maximalist Israeli plan will place the ten or so remaining captives in mortal danger. “Netanyahu’s plans to expand the aggression confirm beyond any doubt that he seeks to get rid of his captives and sacrifice them,” the Palestinian resistance group declared.

For the most influential members of Israel’s messianic-fascist government, the captives present a final obstacle to the “total victory” agenda, which can only be fulfilled with the defeat of Hamas, the annexation of northern Gaza and the expulsion of much of Gaza’s population. Bezalel Smotrich, the fanatical Finance Minister who forms the linchpin of Netanyahu’s coalition, has openly argued that returning the captives through negotiations was “not the most important thing.”

Israel’s Channel 13 reported this August 7 that Smotrich sabotaged a hostage deal backed by Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus, joining with Netanyahu to unleash carnage across Gaza in flagrant violation of a US-brokered ceasefire. Now, with the full conquest of Gaza on the horizon, he and his allies are presented with the tantalizing opportunity to wipe out the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza. In their view, this would fully deprive Hamas of its negotiating leverage, and clear the way to triumph.

Israel’s military first demonstrated its willingness to kill large numbers of its own citizens when it implemented the “mass Hannibal” directive on October 7, 2023. The purpose of the free fire orders, which led to the destruction of scores of vehicles containing Jewish Israeli captives heading toward Gaza, and the killing of possibly hundreds of Israeli citizens, was to limit the enemy’s ability to extract political concessions through a hostage deal. In the months that followed, Israeli strikes killed at least 20 captives inside Gaza and wounded or threatened over 50 others, according to an investigation by Haaretz. The Israeli paper neglected to include the wife and young children of Yarden Bibas, a former captive who acknowledged while in captivity that his family had been killed by an Israeli airstrike.

For Israel’s government, the handful of captives remaining inside Gaza are an inconvenient political obstacle to “total victory.” The mass Hannibal Directive that began on October 7 may soon be completed.