Israel Apparently Poised To Begin Operations In Southern Gaza

    A few weeks back, Vox Day linked to an article entitled "Israeli Conflict Takes Eschatological Turn + Ukraine War Updates." Among other things, it lays out Israel's grand strategy as to Gaza: 

    The goal is for the IDF to storm northern Gaza and force everyone to the south. Once that’s accomplished, they will announce a new sector to be cleared, and continue pushing southward until every single Palestinian is ethnically cleansed and pushed out through Rafah into Egypt’s Sinai. 

* * *

    It’s clear as day for anyone with eyes to see. Israel is blocking off the northern half of Gaza, bombing anyone who goes there, in order to push the entire population south into Egypt. It’s textbook ethnic cleansing and genocide. 

Keep that in mind as you read this CNN article from a few days ago: "Israel drops leaflets on parts of southern Gaza suggesting possible expansion of offensive against Hamas." From the article:

    Israel has dropped leaflets across parts of southern Gaza calling on civilians to evacuate and “head towards known shelters,” indicating Israel could soon expand its ground operation against Hamas to the south of the enclave.

    Leaflets were dropped Wednesday on four communities to the east of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, warning people living there to “evacuate your residence immediately.”

    The communities – Al Qarrah, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila, and Absaan – are near the perimeter fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, suggesting possible new incursion points by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) looking to take control of the south.

    “Everyone who finds themselves near the terrorists or their buildings expose their lives to danger. Every house used by terrorist organizations will be targeted. Respecting the instructions of the IDF will prevent you, the civilians, being exposed to harm,” the leaflet read.

    The director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has staff in Gaza, suggested Wednesday in a social media post that members of his local team had seen the leaflet. Reuters also said it had spoken to people who had seen it.

    CNN has tried to speak to contacts in the Khan Younis area who might have seen the leaflet themselves, but efforts have been hindered by poor communications in the enclave. The main UN relief agency in Gaza said Thursday there was a “total communication blackout” in the enclave.

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that Hamas had lost control in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, which has become the epicenter of Israel’s ground offensive.

    “We are in control of the entire area above and below ground in the northern Gaza Strip, and especially in Gaza City,” Gallant said at a news conference, referring to the IDF’s Golani Brigade. He said Israel had entered “the second stage of the war in Gaza,” and that the IDF would “keep advancing.”

    Gallant went further Wednesday, telling a reporter that Israel’s ground operations “will last for many months – and will include both the north and the south [of the Gaza Strip]. We will dismantle Hamas wherever it is.”

So if Israel forces the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, where do they expect them to go? The West Bank? Not likely. Although behind a paywall, Haaretz published an article a year go which explained that "Israel Forces West Bank Palestinians Who Move to Gaza to Choose Between Their Family and Home," and states in the lede that "Israel doesn’t allow Gazans to move to the West Bank". A Wikipedia article on the topic of movement of Palestinians between Gaza and the West Bank relates that "[r]esidents of Gaza are only allowed to travel to the West Bank in exceptional humanitarian cases, particularly urgent medical cases, but not including marriage." Besides, Israel is in the process of forcing Palestinians off land in the West Bank to make more room for Jewish settlers; they aren't going to want to let more Palestinians into the West Bank. 

    What about surrounding Arab nations, including Egypt? Matt Vespa explains why this won't happen in his Town Hall article, "It's Simple Why No Arab Countries Are Taking Palestinian Refugees. They Know Better." 

    When Israel began conducting airstrikes in Gaza, everyone knew there was going to be displacement. ...

    Egypt is the logical destination for these Palestinians, but Cairo doesn’t want them, and for good reason: terrorism. The border crossing at Rafah remains closed, with tanks now deployed to ensure their border is secure. Egypt’s prime minister even said his country is willing to sacrifice millions to ensure no Palestinians ever enter Egypt en masse ....

He goes on to cite a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article that states if Egypt doesn't accept Palestinian refugees, "Egypt will become partly responsible for what could become a terrible humanitarian crisis...." Other surrounding states are also unlikely to accept the Palestinians from the Gaza reservation:

As the tweet above mentioned, the Palestinians tried to take over Jordan in the 1970s, leading to the late King Hussein declaring war on them and driving them out. They were booted from Kuwait after collaborating with Saddam Hussein’s forces before the Gulf War. They set off a powder keg in Lebanon, a nation that has yet to recover from its brutal civil war that lasted 15 years. No Arab country wants these people because they bring instability and trouble. ...

    I've seen suggestions over the past month that the plan is actually to browbeat Western nations into taking the Palestinians. In that regard, All Israel News reported last week on "Israeli lawmakers urge the West to accept refugees from Gaza, in WSJ op-ed." An excerpt:

    In a jointly penned opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, two Israeli Members of Knesset recently urged Western nations to welcome Palestinian refugees from Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.

    Israeli Knesset Member Danny Danon of the Likud party and opposition lawmaker, Knesset Member Ram Ben-Barak from the centrist Yesh Atid party stressed that the Hamas terrorist organization is ultimately responsible for civilian casualties and suffering among both Gazan residents and Israelis.

    Danon previously served as the Jewish state’s ambassador to the United Nations. Ben-Barak is a former deputy head of the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency.

    “Hamas’s unprovoked terrorist attack on Oct. 7 has endangered not only Israel but the more than two million people who live in the Gaza Strip. Although Hamas won 2006 elections in Gaza and took control of the area from the Palestinian Authority the following year, the group has said that it bears no responsibility for the people living there,” the two lawmakers wrote.

    Their opinion piece was a response to many international observers who have voiced concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip amid the Hamas-initiated war against Israel on Oct. 7.

    Danon and Ben-Barak stressed that Europe has a long tradition of helping migrants fleeing from conflict zones such as former Yugoslavia and Ukraine.

    “Europe has a long history of assisting refugees fleeing conflicts. The wars in the former Yugoslavia displaced millions, most of them from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Germany, Austria and Sweden accepted large numbers. When the Kosovo war erupted, hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians fled to neighboring Albania and the country now called North Macedonia.”

    Since much of the infrastructure and homes in Gaza have been destroyed, as a result of the war, the two lawmakers urged European Union states to consider taking in Gazans who wish to flee the war-torn coastal enclave in a similar fashion as the large number of Syrian refugees in 2015.

    “European countries including Germany, Sweden and France have provided refuge to Syrians since the civil war started in 2011. Between 2015 and 2016, Germany alone admitted more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum-seekers, about a quarter of whom were Syrian.”

    Danon and Ben-Barak urged “countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has also stated his support of the ideas in the WSJ editorial, adding that Gaza is too small to survive as an independent country and that "The State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza". I suspect they view this as a win-win situation: get rid of the Palestinians in Gaza and destabilize the West.