[News] Israeli lawmakers demand military destroy all food and energy resources in Gaza

Sun Jan 5 13:19:51 EST 2025

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2025/01/israeli-lawmakers-demand-military-destroy-all-food-and-energy-resources-in-gaza/?ml_recipient=142692407882811390&ml_link=142692355233809867&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-01-05&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation>
Israeli lawmakers demand military destroy all food and energy resources in
Gaza
Adam Horowitz
January 4, 2025
------------------------------
[image: 020125_Khan_Yunis_DB_0044.jpg]
Displaced Palestinians check the destruction following an overnight Israeli
strike on a makeshift displacement camp in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis
in the southern Gaza Strip on January 2, 2025, that reportedly killed at
least 11 people. On January 1, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz
threatened that Israel would intensify its strikes on Gaza if Hamas
continued firing rockets into Israel. (Photo: Doaa el-Baz/APA Images)

On December 31, eight Israeli government coalition lawmakers on the Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee sent a letter
<https://x.com/EpshtainItay/status/1874845322259709981> to Defense Minister
Israel Katz, urging him to intensify the siege of Gaza – not just in the
north, but across the territory.

Referring to the north, where Israel is conducting a tight siege and ethnic
cleansing campaign, they bemoan that “the IDF does not regard, as is custom
in international law and all western armies, those who remain as enemies”.
In other words, they suggest shooting everyone who is there, after the
so-called “humanitarian evacuation” is supposedly complete. This is the
euphemism for the ethnic cleansing campaign.

They demand three basic points of action, after the “encirclement and
evacuation of the population:”

   1. Remote elimination of all energy sources, that is fuel, solar panels
   and any relevant means (pipes, cables, generators etc.)
   2. Elimination of all food sources including warehouses, water and all
   relevant means (water pumps etc.)
   3. Remote elimination of anyone who moves in the area and does not exit
   with a white flag during the days of the effective siege.

“After these actions and the days of siege upon those who remain, IDF must
enter gradually and conduct a full cleansing of the enemy nests.”

The “remote elimination” apparently means the usage of aerial bombings
without a physical presence on the ground.

The letter was sent by Amit Halevy [Likud], Nissim Vaturi [Likud], Ariel
Kellner [Likud], Osher Shekalim [Likud], Zvi Sukkot [Religious Zionism],
Ohad Tal [Religious Zionism], Limor Son Har-Melech [Jewish Power], and
Avraham Bezalel [Shas]. Itai Epshtain notes
<https://x.com/EpshtainItay/status/1874845322259709981> on X that Ariel
Kellner (one of the signatories) is Chair of the All Party Group on
Israel-EU Parliament relations and a “frequent visitor to Brussels”. While
the committee as a whole includes 17 members, some of whom are also
opposition members, the lawmakers here constitute the more right-wing half.
Nonetheless, these lawmakers represent a general cross-section of the
Israeli governmental political spectrum. This is, as is often noted,
clearly the most right-wing government Israel has had, but still, it has
its spectrum – from the Likud on the ‘left’ to Jewish Power on the ‘right’,
as is also represented roughly in the committee signatories.

The letter bemoans that Hamas still seems to have a presence in areas that
IDF has already “conquered”, and that this is costing Israeli soldiers’
blood. In line with the Generals’ plan
<https://mondoweiss.net/2024/10/what-is-the-generals-plan-israels-ongoing-ethnic-cleansing-of-northern-gaza-explained/>,
the letter calls for a full, “decisive victory”, rather than a “war of
attrition”.

Here is the letter in full – this is a verbatim translation:

*Concerning: the operational plan in the Gaza Strip*

*We approach you, as members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
so that you re-examine the military operations in the Gaza Strip, due to
its harsh results until now and prospects for the future. We shall thus
specify:*

   1. *The military operation in the Gaza Strip, as it was presented to us
   at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by the former Defense Minister
   even before the beginning of the ground operation on October 27, 2023, and
   as it has been conducted since, on the ground, does not allow for the
   objectives as determined by the governmental echelon: Toppling the
   governance and military capabilities of Hamas, and they are indeed not
   materializing until today, despite dealing with a small territory and an
   enemy that does not possess tools or capabilities of a modern army. *

   2. *As was mentioned by the [IDF] Chief of Staff publicly, IDF operates
   with the method of local raids, a method which lacks the central component
   of a guerilla war of this kind: **control**. Effective control of the
   territory and the population is the only means towards cleansing enemy
   lines from the strip, and naturally towards decisive victory, rather than
   treading [water] in a war of attrition, where the side that is most worn is
   Israel. **Therefore we end up inserting our soldiers again and again
   into neighborhoods and alleys that were already conquered by them many
   times, places which IDF leaders have declared as such, where Hamas
   divisions were dismantled and toppled, [declared] cleansed of enemies.**
   (And in these same places we pay a dear and intolerable price in blood).  *

   3. *From the date October 6, 2024, in the north of the Gaza Strip, south
   of the Mefalsim [Jabalia] corridor, a one-way operation ensued, one which
   included encirclement and evacuation of the population southwards. We all
   hoped that this was the beginning of military actions that would bring the
   required change, yet it seems that this operation is not being conducted
   properly: **that is, after the encirclement and humanitarian evacuation,
   the IDF does not regard, as is custom in international law and all western
   armies, those who remain, as enemies**. And is again risking the lives
   of our soldiers by entering the dense residential territory.  *

   4. *After encirclement and evacuation of the population, the
   instructions to IDF need to be clear: *

*(1)* *Remote elimination of all energy sources, that is fuel, solar panels
and any relevant means (pipes, cables, generators etc.)*

*(2)* *Elimination of all food sources including warehouses, water and all
relevant means (water pumps etc.)*

*(3)* *Remote elimination of anyone who moves in the area and does not exit
with a white flag during the days of the effective siege. *

*After these actions and the days of siege upon those who remain, IDF must
enter gradually and conduct a full cleansing of the enemy nests.*

   5. *This should be done in the northern Gaza Strip, and similarly in any
   other territory: encirclement, evacuation of the population to a
   humanitarian zone, and effective siege until surrender or full elimination
   of the enemy. This is how every army acts, and so must the IDF act. *

*Despite repeated questions and requests at the Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee, until today we have not received satisfactory answers from IDF
representatives at the committee, concerning why they do not act as is
required, to determine victory over Hamas as an ‘end of operations state’
concerning the fighting, and what the plans are for the future. Therefore
we ask for your immediate intervention in response to these questions, as
well as the issuance of suitable instructions to IDF in order to reach a
decisive victory and a cessation of unnecessary risking of our soldiers’
lives. *

*Copy: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chair of Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein. *

*[Signatories]: Amit Halevy [Likud], Nissim Vattori [Likud], Ariel Kellner
[Likud], Osher Shekalim [Likud], Zvi Sukkot [Religious Zionism], Ohad Tal
[Religious Zionism], Limor Son Har-Melech [Jewish Power], Avraham Bezalel
[Shas].*
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