JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.
Those who remain would be considered combatants — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them — and denied food, water, medicine and fuel.
The plan calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration without Hamas, splitting the Gaza Strip in two.
Human rights groups say the plan would likely starve civilians and that it flies in the face of international law, which prohibits using food as a weapon and forcible transfers. Accusations that Israel is intentionally limiting food to Gaza are central to the genocide case brought against it at the International Court of Justice, charges Israel denies.
That’s only part of the plan. The full plan is remove every last Palestinian from Gaza and then shove a canal through it. The other end will be at Elat, thus providing a western-controlled alternative to Egypt’s Suez.
There would be far more humanitarian ways of going about this, but murder is quicker and silences dissent.
You’ll notice that Jordan hasn’t been touched during any of this. Got to keep them onside because their port city of Aqaba is uncomfortably close.
The engineering would be implausible and unprofitable. The terrain does not support that type of plan.
The terrain in Panama didn’t support it either.
Either way, my comment is accurate up to the word Gaza, “and then” or not.
A canal through Israel would involve about 15x the amount of digging as did Panama. Doubling the capacity (Suez + this suggested canal) would cut revenue to less than half (doubling capacity but also introducing market competition). But the operation costs of Suez would also be much lower. Plus all that traffic would create a security risk because it would introduce a new mode of importing terror into the country. It isn’t going to happen. This is the stuff of conspiracy theory.
