Israel 'starting to implement' plan to starve north Gaza, rights groups say

Israel appears to be starting to implement a controversial plan to force Hamas into submission by laying siege to the north of Gaza and starving those who remain, Israeli human rights groups have warned.

The so-called Generals' Plan, created by former national security adviser Giora Eiland, calls for Israel to order civilians to leave north Gaza for other areas of the enclave, and then declare the north a closed military zone, reports Financial Times.

Those who did not leave would be considered military targets, and totally cut off from supplies of food, water and medicines.

Eiland said the plan — which he presented to parliament's defence committee last month — is designed to ratchet up pressure on Hamas to release the 101 Israeli hostages that the Palestinian militant group still holds in Gaza.

But human rights groups say that it would trap civilians, and that carrying out the plan would breach international law.

The Israeli military has denied implementing Eiland's plan. Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said, "We have not received a plan like that."

According to two people with knowledge of internal Israeli deliberations, senior Israeli security officials are unwilling to officially approve the plan, with some considering parts of it to be violations of international law.

But Israeli media reported last month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told MPs he was considering the scheme. On Monday, four human rights groups — Gisha, B'Tselem, PHR-I and Yesh Din — said there were "alarming signs" that Israel was "quietly" starting to implement it, and called on the international community to stop it.

The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment.

Eiland said he put forward his plan because a year of fighting had failed to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages it holds in Gaza, some of whom are believed to have died.

Israel could increase pressure on Hamas by besieging and taking total control of northern Gaza, and threatening to keep control "theoretically speaking forever" if Hamas did not free the hostages, he said.

But human rights groups said that many civilians would be unable to leave the north, and that even if they did, there was nowhere safe to go in Gaza.

Treating those remaining in the north as combatants simply because of their presence there, and issuing open-ended evacuation orders, were both clear breaches of international law, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha.

"People who can't go — and also anyone who chooses to stay — don't lose their status as non-combatants. They continue to be civilians," she said. "And Israel still has an obligation to protect them and to follow the rules of international humanitarian law."