• Israel will ‘advance the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians’ through the systematic creation of more ‘corridors of military control,’ says Andreas Krieg of King’s College London
• ‘Israel now wants to resettle Jewish settlers in the north … That would mean a further displacement of Palestinians, further suffering,’ warns Israeli academic Neve Gordon

ISTANBUL

Israel’s far-right government has made its most explicit declaration yet of its long-term intentions in the Gaza Strip, with top Israeli officials publicly endorsing what many Palestinians and international observers have long feared: permanent military occupation and complete territorial control.

The Israeli Security Cabinet unanimously approved a new plan on Monday that aims for Israel “to conquer Gaza and hold the territory under its control,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The move came just two days after the army called up thousands of reservists amid preparations to escalate its military campaign.

“Let it be clear: we will not enter Gaza and then pull out as we’ve done in the past. We will not send reserve forces to temporarily control the area and then leave it with only sporadic raids on what remains. That will not happen,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X, adding: “What we’re planning is the exact opposite.”

Figures from his administration, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Culture Minister Miki Zohar and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, chimed in with more such rhetoric.

“We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,’” Smotrich told Israel’s Channel 13.

Code-named “Gideon’s Chariots,” the plan sets out Israel’s vision for a long-term presence in Gaza: full military control, forced displacement of civilians, and the takeover of humanitarian aid delivery.

In the short-term, this is a tactic to intensify pressure on Hamas ahead of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the region, Ihab Maharmeh, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, told Anadolu.

“In the long term, Israel’s plan signals a clear intention to reoccupy the Gaza Strip through military expansion, engineered displacement, and the ethnic cleansing of its population,” said Maharmeh, who is also a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha.

Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, echoed the concern that Israel’s expanding military infrastructure inside Gaza reflects a broader strategy of permanent control.

“The establishment of new corridors in the Gaza Strip suggests the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is trying to carve up the territory ever more, constraining the freedom of movement of Gazans and making it easier to control smaller chunks of territory,” Krieg told Anadolu.

“This IDF approach is geared toward occupation and control of territory and people,” he added.

Ethnic cleansing and engineered displacement

Experts warn that Israel’s stated plans amount to a blueprint for ethnic cleansing.

According to Krieg, the systematic creation of more “corridors of military control” will “advance the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” gradually pushing hundreds of thousands from the north into smaller and more densely packed areas in southern Gaza.

“The IDF will advance this agenda gradually by clearing and holding territory small slices at a time until the remaining 2 million Gazans are crammed into a much smaller territory in the south,” he said.

Maharmeh described the strategy as part of a broader settler-colonial objective.

“The ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing represent a continuation of colonial violence by the Zionist settler-colonial regime,” he said.

“The reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the displacement of Palestinians from it have always been – and continue to be – a settler-colonial objective since the arrival of the Zionist movement in Palestine.”

He explained that for the far-right currently in power, Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza is viewed as a historical error.

“As for Smotrich, he openly argues that Israel should stop fearing the use of the word ‘occupation,’” Maharmeh said.

Israeli academic and political scientist Neve Gordon also voiced concern about Israel’s intentions to reintroduce settlements in Gaza.

“Israel now wants to resettle Jewish settlers in the north,” Gordon said. “That would mean a further displacement of Palestinians, further suffering.”

Controlling aid and undermining UNRWA

Israel’s reported plan to control aid delivery in Gaza, which involves using American security contractors, has also drawn sharp criticism, with the UN and dozens of international aid groups rejecting it outright.

Gordon believes one of the underlying motives is to further “delegitimize UNRWA,” the UN agency tasked with assisting Palestinian refugees, which has already faced a concerted campaign of allegations by Israeli officials.

“Israel wants to claim that there are no refugees and therefore it has to get rid of that institution,” he said.

“Israel, for several years now, has been trying to dismantle UNRWA, and it is using now the Oct. 7 attacks as an excuse to dismantle UNRWA.”

Krieg, meanwhile, warned that Israel’s plan to oversee humanitarian aid distribution via private US contractors is not only inadequate but potentially dangerous.

“What the Israelis have said is that they’re allowing only about 50 or 60 trucks of humanitarian aid to come into the Strip each day, which is far short of what is required … probably only 10% of what’s needed,” he said.

“It will just about keep Gazans alive, but it will make it a contest for Palestinians to actually access the aid they urgently need.”

The proposed system of centralized “humanitarian hubs,” secured by private contractors, may also pose legal challenges.

“They’ll put US contractors in place to secure these hubs. It’s quite likely that these contractors will come under immense pressure because families will compete for access to these hubs, considering that too little will be given out,” he said.

These contractors, he added, will not be in uniform, which means under “their status isn’t very well defined” under international humanitarian law.

International pressure

Analysts emphasize that thwarting Israel’s reoccupation plans for Gaza depends on international reaction and pressure.

“The success or failure of Israel’s plans hinges primarily on the presence of a strong international stance that clearly rejects the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the forced displacement of its people,” said Maharmeh.

He also called for the emergence of a unified Palestinian political leadership “that genuinely represents the Palestinian people, and works to end the ongoing genocidal war, resists ethnic cleansing, and leads the reconstruction of Gaza.”

Gordon underscored the role of global civil society and political pressure.

“If civil society continues to resist and tell their leaders that they cannot support this genocidal war, and if world leaders will say they will not accept Palestinians in their territories because the Palestinians have a home … and actually condition their relations with Israel based on its treatment of Palestinians, then Israel will not succeed,” he said.

He also stressed the need for concerted pressure on Israel from both the Global South and Global North.

“It really depends on Israel’s major trading partners, which is the EU and the US, but also other countries like India and several countries in Southeast Asia,” he added.