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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="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">mondoweiss.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli lawmakers demand military destroy all food and energy resources in Gaza</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Adam Horowitz</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">January 4, 2025<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_m5jxsgws0" alt="020125_Khan_Yunis_DB_0044.jpg" width="460" height="345"><br>
<font size="1">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)
</font><p>On December 31, eight Israeli government coalition lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sent a <a href="https://x.com/EpshtainItay/status/1874845322259709981">letter</a> to Defense Minister Israel Katz, urging him to intensify the siege of Gaza – not just in the north, but across the territory.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>They demand three basic points of action, after the “encirclement and evacuation of the population:” </p>
<ol><li>Remote elimination of all energy sources, that is fuel, solar panels and any relevant means (pipes, cables, generators etc.)</li><li>Elimination of all food sources including warehouses, water and all relevant means (water pumps etc.)</li><li>Remote elimination of anyone who moves in the area and does not exit with a white flag during the days of the effective siege. </li></ol>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>The “remote elimination” apparently means the usage of aerial bombings without a physical presence on the ground. </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://x.com/EpshtainItay/status/1874845322259709981">notes</a>
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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/10/what-is-the-generals-plan-israels-ongoing-ethnic-cleansing-of-northern-gaza-explained/">Generals’ plan</a>, the letter calls for a full, “decisive victory”, rather than a “war of attrition”. </p>
<p>Here is the letter in full – this is a verbatim translation: </p>
<p><strong><em>Concerning: the operational plan in the Gaza Strip</em></strong></p>
<p><em>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:</em></p>
<ol><li><em>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. </em></li></ol>
<ol start="2"><li><em>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: </em><strong><em>control</em></strong><em>.
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. </em><strong><em>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.</em></strong><em> (And in these same places we pay a dear and intolerable price in blood). </em></li></ol>
<ol start="3"><li><em>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: </em><strong><em>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</em></strong><em>. And is again risking the lives of our soldiers by entering the dense residential territory. </em></li></ol>
<ol start="4"><li><strong><em>After encirclement and evacuation of the population, the instructions to IDF need to be clear: </em></strong></li></ol>
<p><em>(1)</em><em> </em><em>Remote elimination of all energy sources, that is fuel, solar panels and any relevant means (pipes, cables, generators etc.)</em></p>
<p><em>(2)</em><em> </em><em>Elimination of all food sources including warehouses, water and all relevant means (water pumps etc.)</em></p>
<p><em>(3)</em><em> </em><em>Remote elimination of anyone who moves in the area and does not exit with a white flag during the days of the effective siege. </em></p>
<p><em>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.</em></p>
<ol start="5"><li><em>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. </em></li></ol>
<p><em>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. </em></p>
<p><em>Copy: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chair of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein. </em></p>
<p><em>[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].</em></p>
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