This new Gaza operation risks crossing red lines

Since March, when Israel elected to forgo the second phase of the ceasefire agreement and imposed a total blockade on Gaza, many prominent Israelis, including former prime ministers, heads of opposition parties, academics, and social activists have spoken increasingly bluntly about the direction of the war against Hamas. 

Last week, two of Israel’s leading authorities on the laws of war, Col. (res.) Pnina Sharvit Baruch and Tammy Caner, fellows at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, declared that Israel’s new offensive in Gaza, if implemented according to the declarations of the Israeli government, could “cross all red lines.” Sharvit Baruch is a former head of the Israel Defense Force’s international law unit.

Their analysis will receive widespread attention in Israel.  It should also be read by American Jewish leaders, particularly professional and lay leaders of American Jewry’s large communal and advocacy organizations.

According to Sharvit Baruch and Caner, the operation, dubbed Gideon’s Chariots, is meant to seize and control over 70% of the Gaza Strip, move the civilian population outside of those areas, and deliver aid by a new mechanism that bypasses Hamas. The political leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has implied that civilians will not be permitted to return to their places of residence, and indeed will be forced out of the Strip. Sharvit Baruch and Caner warn that international law defines the permanent removal of a civilian population as ethnic cleansing, which is a crime against humanity. 

The operation is also meant to implement a new system for distribution of humanitarian aid, following the 80-day blockade. Designed to keep assistance out of the hands of Hamas, which diverts it for its own use and to maintain its grip on power, the plan provides basic foodstuffs at four “secure distribution sites.” The army will guard the perimeter of the distribution sites, and delivery and distribution of aid will be done by American contractors. Gazan heads of households will be expected to travel weekly to one of the sites and receive adequate supplies for their families. The rollout of the new system began last month. 

Sharvit Baruch and Caner warn that the plan, as announced, does not explain how Gazans who cannot travel to the sites will receive food, and how other needs, such as specific medicines, will be met. They also warn that a plan to concentrate hundreds of thousands of Gazans in places without adequate infrastructure could result in severe overcrowding, acute deprivation, disease, violence, and increased mortality. If the plan is implemented in a way that does not meet the basic humanitarian needs of the population, then it could be considered a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Sharvit Baruch and Caner’s conclusions deserve to be quoted in full. “Even in a war against a cruel enemy… there are red lines. Forced displacement of a civilian population, through massive evacuation to designated areas, with the aim of forcing it to leave the Gaza Strip, would be crossing a red line.  Depriving a civilian population of the necessities for its survival and pushing it into areas that lack basic living conditions, would be crossing a red line.”

Israel’s right-wing government, although democratically elected and legitimate, no longer represents the will of the Israeli public concerning the war. In survey after survey, a decisive majority of Israelis want a deal that frees all of Israel’s 58 remaining hostages and ends the war. The government has been able to resist the will of the public because of its remarkable cohesion — a dynamic that now may be shifting because of internal struggles over the issue of draft exemptions for Haredi Jews.

American Jewry’s national organizations have yet to weigh in on the Israeli government’s evolving war strategy. They are primed to rally support for Israel during wartime and not to add to the chorus of criticism. In the wake of the murder of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, and the terrorist attack at the hostage solidarity march in Boulder, they are facing surging fears of antisemitic violence in the United States. They lead organizations that are politically divided, and they are reluctant to take sides in internal Israeli political struggles.

Gideon’s Chariots, however, is underway, and even if suspended during a temporary cease fire and hostage deal, the Israeli government’s chosen direction is increasingly clear. Indeed, Netanyahu recently added implementation of the “Trump plan” for relocation of Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip to his list of war aims.

Canada, France and the United Kingdom have threatened sanctions. Germany’s foreign minister has described the situation as “unbearable” and warned of “further steps.” Israel now faces the possibility of increasing global isolation. The damage to the Jewish state and its relationship to Jewish communities around the world could be enormous.

Israel can still avoid these worst-case-scenario outcomes. The Israeli government should clarify that it does not seek to transfer Palestinians out of Gaza. It should ensure that Gazan civilians have access to adequate humanitarian aid. And it should avoid intentionally creating conditions that pressure Gazans to leave the Gaza Strip,  for lack of food, sanitation, medicine, health care or basic safety.  As Sharvit Baruch and Caner observe, Israel’s fate as a Jewish and democratic state hangs in the balance.