Rescue innocent Gazans by bringing them into the Negev - opinion

• Published date: 25 March 2024
• Author: ELIAZ COHEN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

More than half of Gaza's housing stock has been damaged or destroyed, and several UN officials have described the coastal enclave as largely unlivable. And still, the war goes on

With Hamas leadership still sheltering behind its own civilians, IDF operations are now moving into the very same areas to which Palestinians were asked to evacuate. Unless unprecedented and unlikely pressure is brought to bear by the international community, it's hard to see Israel stopping before achieving its stated objective of destroying Hamas – at the very least, as a military force – and eliminating its most recognizable military leaders.

In every other situation of this kind – consider Syria or Ukraine – we will, by now, have seen an exodus of refugees into the nearest friendly or neutral territories. For Gazans, jammed between Israel proper and the Mediterranean Sea, the only such destination is Egypt.

But Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been adamant that no such movement will be allowed, suggesting that if Israel wanted to allow Palestinian civilians to evacuate, it could take them into the Negev – the Israeli region immediately

bordering the Strip. Notably, while Palestinians and their allies are using every possible leverage to stop Israel's campaign, they are far less vocal on allowing Palestinians to leave the Strip, or on pressuring friendly countries to accept them. The reason is simple: they remember 1948, and fear that anyone who leaves Gaza will never be allowed to come back.

They're right to be concerned. A few months ago, the mass expulsion of Palestinians beyond the borders of historical Eretz Yisrael/Palestine was a fevered dream of the most far-right faction of Israel's far-right government.

Even the massive demographic shifts of 1948 were only possible under the fog of a cataclysmic regional war, which did not seem on the table even as late as October 6. But on October 7, Hamas kicked the table over. Events since have created both the domestic political impetus and some – if not all – of the regional conditions needed for such mass displacement.

What was once recognized as fantasy is now seeping into the mainstream, even public discourse among policymakers. It's not just the original advocates who feel emboldened – although they certainly are.

The most prominent of them Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared just the other week that in his ideal scenario, no more than 100,000-200,000 Gazans should remain in the enclave, with the territory...