An Israeli soldier has revealed that the regime’s troops were directed to wipe out northern Gaza as part of a deliberate military strategy to prevent the Palestinians from returning to the besieged territory.
“You just need to destroy the neighborhood, so that they can’t come back there. Why to destroy? That’s the mission; that’s what I carry out,” the unnamed soldier said during an interview with Drop Site News.
The soldier belonged to the Givati Brigade, one of the brigades involved in implementing the General’s Plan.
“I’m the small soldier, bro,” he said. “That’s the mission; that’s what I carry out. But if you’re asking for my personal opinion, I really don’t know what to tell you; it’s simply the mission, bro.”
During the implementation of the so-called General’s Plan between October 2024 and January 2025, Israeli forces displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza, pushing many into overcrowded temporary shelters, including repurposed schools.
The General’s Plan is a policy devised by former General Giora Eiland that used the lack of access to water, food, and medicine as a weapon of war to force the besieged Palestinians in the north of Gaza to starve or surrender.
The Givati Brigade was among the first Israeli military units deployed during the initial offensive. Over the subsequent twenty months, the brigade participated in operations that led to the near-total destruction of multiple Gaza towns, including Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya, and Rafah.
“It’s a location, it’s a location that you don’t need anymore. And there’s a place you need to flatten, so you just flatten it,” the Israeli soldier added.
Beyond enforcing mass displacements, the Givati Brigade was directly responsible for the intentional burning of three northern Gaza schools.
“When you need to take apart a place, it’s so that the Arabs won’t come back. And suddenly you say ‘Well, I already destroyed that building, so there’s nothing else to do there,’” said the soldier. “The mission is to take it all down. It’s to simply take down everything that’s there. So that there’s nothing left.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime has taken the lives of 54,677 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and wounded another 125,341, most of whom have been children and women, according to the health ministry of Gaza.
During its bloody aggression, Israel has targeted Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, in blatant violation of international law.
On November 21, 2024, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former minister of military affairs.
