General’s Plan general: ‘We are at the mercy of Hamas’
A former army general who proposed a “surrender-or-starve” strategy for northern Gaza says “the war has ended very badly” for Israel.
General Giora Eiland spoke to Israeli Army Radio as tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to widespread destruction in the north in accordance with a ceasefire Israel reached with Hamas.
Eiland said by opening the Netzarim Corridor – an Israeli military zone bisecting the territory – Israel lost leverage over Hamas and wouldn’t be able to restore it, even if it resumes the war. “We are at the mercy of Hamas,” he said.
The general added that Israel failed to achieve its stated war goals, including destroying Hamas, removing it from governance and safely returning dozens of captives to Israel. Hamas, by contrast, “has largely achieved everything it wanted”, he said.
Eiland was the main author of the “Generals’ Plan”, which called for declaring northern Gaza a closed military zone, sealing it off from humanitarian aid and declaring anyone remaining a combatant.
In September, the plan was presented to Netanyahu’s government, which has not said whether it adopted parts of it. The Israeli military has denied carrying it out.
Smotrich says he is working on turning Trump’s proposal to ‘clean out’ Gaza into policy
The Times of Israel is reporting that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has praised Trump’s proposal to clear Palestinians out of Gaza and move them to Jordan and Egypt and is working to turn this idea into an “operational plan”.
The newspaper said Smotrich made his comments to reporters before his Religious Zionism party’s weekly meeting in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Palestinians ‘need to stay in Gaza’, says Spain’s foreign minister
Jose Manuel Albares has rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza and relocate its population to Egypt and Jordan.
“Our position is clear: Gazans need to stay in Gaza. Gaza is part of the future Palestinian state, which needs to be controlled by a single government,” the Spanish foreign minister told reporters in Brussels.
Albares also insisted that the European Union should be focused on immediately helping “the humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza with aid for food, health, and education needs and guaranteeing the presence of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Spain would increase its financial aid to Palestine and UNRWA to 50 million euros ($52m), Albares announced.
“We have a window of hope in Gaza, a ceasefire that isn’t permanent, but we need to work to make it so”, he stated.
Germany disagrees with Trump’s idea to resettle Palestinians in Jordan and Egypt
The German Foreign Ministry has said the Palestinian population must not be expelled from Gaza in comments made following the remarks by Trump that Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians.
A spokesperson said the German government shared the view of “the European Union, our Arab partners, the United Nations … that the Palestinian population must not be expelled from Gaza and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or recolonised by Israel”.
Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. Both countries and other Arab nations reject the idea of Palestinians in Gaza being moved to their countries.
Palestinians have also roundly condemned Trump’s proposal, which has raised concerns of ethnic cleansing.
Italy’s PM Meloni downplays Trump’s ‘clean out’ Gaza comments
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she doesn’t believe Donald Trump has a “defined plan” to move Palestinians out of Gaza but welcomes a debate on the territory’s reconstruction.
Meloni, who attended Trump’s inauguration and hopes to position herself as a bridge between the US administration and the European Union, said the situation is “complex”.
“Trump is right when he says the reconstruction of Gaza is obviously one of the main challenges we face, and that to succeed, however, a great deal of involvement from the international community is needed,” she told reporters during a visit to Saudi Arabia.
“As for the issue of refugees, I don’t think, here again, that we are faced with a defined plan. I think we are rather faced with discussions with regional actors, who certainly need to be involved in this.”
Trump said on Saturday he wanted Jordan and Egypt to take people from Gaza, suggesting “we just clean out that whole thing” – an idea quickly rejected by Palestinian leaders, the Arab League, Jordan and Egypt.
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