In a scene that exacerbates the escalating humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, leaks revealed that the Israeli government has launched a military-political plan called ‘Gideon’s Chariots’, which includes a combination of massacres, starvation, and demographic engineering, in an attempt to reshape the demographic and geographical reality of the Strip.
While the world remains silent, observers describe this plan as a dangerous escalation that opens the door to the crime of mass forced displacement, using famine as a weapon to force the population to leave their lands, in a move described by human rights organisations as a form of genocide.
Gideon’s Chariots: three stages towards ‘Little Gaza’
According to an extensive report by military journalist Ron Ben-Yishai in Yediot Aharonot, Gideon’s Chariots consists of three successive phases, all of which aim to dismantle the resistance structure in Gaza, separate it from its popular support, and redraw the geographic and demographic map of the Strip.
The first stage: logistical and psychological preparation
It includes establishing logistical centres to manage the distribution of food and medical aid, and preparing an environment that pushes the population towards the southern Gaza Strip between the Morag and Philadelphia axes, an area that is intended to be transformed into a ‘miniature Gaza’.
Phase two: displacement by bombardment and suffocation
It includes widespread aerial and ground bombardment, aimed at forcing the population to move towards the designated areas through threatening messages and leaflets. Security checkpoints, supervised by the intelligence services and the army, are set up to eliminate those whom Israel considers a security risk.
The third phase: invasion and military dismantling
As the targeted areas are depopulated, field invasions begin, and the military and civilian infrastructure that Israel sees as a threat is comprehensively destroyed. This phase is accompanied by a clear intention of long-term military stationing.
‘Pressure Cranes”: between hunger and psychological terrorism
According to the Gideon’s Chariots leaks, Israel relies on five ‘levers’ to achieve its goals:
- Direct occupation of areas.
- Separating civilians from the resistance through security ‘banks’.
- Controlling humanitarian aid to prevent it from reaching Hamas.
- Creating a gap between the population and the resistance through propaganda and siege.
- Intelligence and psychological pressure on the Hamas leadership.
Through these tools, Israel seeks to force Hamas to make concessions, especially with regard to the prisoner file, while the population suffers from a double siege: Military and humanitarian.
Dimensions of displacement: from Gideon’s Chariots plan to statements
The details of the Gideon’s Chariots plan coincide with public statements made by Israeli government officials. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the occupation of Gaza for 50 years and the systematic displacement of its residents, noting that ‘victory is achieved only when Gaza is completely destroyed and its residents are crammed into the south in preparation for their departure to third countries.’
While Israeli Army Minister Yisrael Katz believes that the operation aims to regain full control of the Strip, analysts believe that Israeli political discourse no longer hides the intentions of forcible transfer, but rather openly declares it as part of a long-term strategy.
An absent international community. Famine as a weapon of war in Gaza. This is Gideon’s Chariots.
In light of the worsening crisis, international organisations, most notably Amnesty International, have warned that the Israeli blockade of Gaza amounts to a crime of genocide, especially with the use of starvation as a weapon of war. The organisation stressed in a statement that preventing the entry of food and medicine and depriving civilians of the most basic necessities of life is an ‘illegal collective punishment’.
The Israeli war in Gaza is no longer just a military campaign, but has turned into a comprehensive political project aimed at changing geography and demography, and imposing a new reality based on weakening the resistance, suffocating the population, and forcing them to emigrate under the pressure of death and hunger.
‘Gideon’s Chariots’ is not just a plan, but a mirror that reflects an expansionist logic that does not hesitate to use the most heinous means to impose a political will by force, while the world stands on the sidelines, preoccupied with data, unable – or unwilling – to stop the advanced death machine on the ground.
Featured image via the Canary
