The Planned Expulsion of Gaza’s Population Is Already Underway, by Gadi Algazi – 13 June

From +972 Magazine

Israel is conditioning aid delivery to force Gazans south into ‘concentration zones.’ This plan has begun to stall, but that only portends greater brutality.

Maybe you were waiting for the alarm bells to ring, or for the Israeli army spokesperson to issue an official announcement. But the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, long referred to in Israeli parlance as “transfer,” is already underway. Not in some distant future. Right now.

It’s not exactly happening before Israeli eyes — it’s always possible to look away — but the echoes are reaching Israeli homes. The thundering blasts from Gaza heard across the country are personal messages, like those the army used to send Gazans in a previous era of cruelty: “Your home is about to be bombed. Leave immediately.” This is the updated version of the message, addressed not to the people of Gaza, but to Israeli citizens: “The transfer is underway. It is progressing. And it cannot be undone.”

Of course, the transfer didn’t begin just now, and in the horrific chaos of recent months, it’s hard to fully grasp the scale and meaning of what’s unfolding. It’s also not proceeding exactly as its initiators wished. But that is precisely the danger: when a process like this stalls, the likely response is escalation, and a still more dreadful result.

So how is the transfer being carried out at this moment? Through starvation and the destruction of vital infrastructure. Through the weaponization of “humanitarian aid.” Through relentless, systematic bombing. Many of these tactics have been reported in the media, but the “food distribution method” remains one of the least intuitive. It is crucial to understand: what may appear to be a “tragic logistical failure” is, in fact, a deliberate strategy.

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Gadi Algazi is a social historian and activist based in Tel Aviv.

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