Israel has established a “Population Relocation Unit” to systematically map, surveil, and forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza City through a campaign of leaflets, text messages, and artillery fire, according to Israeli media.
Details shared with Israel Hayom show that the Israeli regime is about to forcibly displace approximately one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip’s largest urban area, moving them south beyond the Netzarim Corridor.
This is the most extreme step yet during Israel’s October 2023-present war of genocide on the Palestinian territory.
The complex evacuation operation is managed by Southern Command’s Population Relocation Unit, whose existence is revealed for the first time.
The unit is responsible for mapping the population, gathering intelligence on it, and coordinating actions to facilitate its movement – distributing leaflets, sending text messages, and, ultimately, firing artillery shells, which send the clearest message to residents that they must evacuate.
“In the current war, the unit was already prepared for micro-level management of the operation,” claimed Erez Weiner, who served as the commander of the operational planning team in Southern Command during the genocide.
“This includes the process of notifications, who issues them, when, and how, as well as monitoring and verifying that there is a response on the other side and that the population is actually moving,” Weiner further claimed.
The regime’s minister for military affairs Israel Katz announced on Tuesday that he had approved new operational plans alongside military chief Eyal Zamir and spy agency chiefs.
The strategy calls for regular brigades to encircle the city, forcing its roughly one million residents to flee.
According to UN data, before the genocide, about 82% of Gaza’s residents lived in areas the regime designated as “evacuation zones.”
Providing aid to these millions of displaced people is an integral part of the population relocation principle. “To convince them to move, you need to use not only a stick but also a carrot,” a former military source claimed.
Israel has insisted that the “carrot” – humanitarian aid to Gaza – be provided and managed by the US-backed GHF foundation.
Gaza Health Ministry has reported that approximately 1,924 Palestinians have been killed and over 14,000 have sustained injuries while seeking aid at GHF sites since May 27, when the Israeli-operated initiative commenced.
Most of them have been purposefully shot by Israeli occupation forces or so-called US “security contractors” hired by GHF, according to testimonies from whistleblowers.
The developments come as on Tuesday, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari confirmed that Gaza’s Hamas resistance movement had responded positively to a new ceasefire proposal.
The regime, though, claims it is yet “studying” Hamas’ response, while pressing ahead with war planning.
“The reaction of the Zionists on Tuesday revealed Netanyahu’s sinister intentions to prolong the war, pursue mass killings, and carry out ethnic cleansing,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said.
Press TV’s website