While America voted, Israel set the stage for the annexation of northern Gaza

A day before the US election, Israel told the UN it would be cut ribbon with UNRWA, its aid organization for Palestinian refugees. On election day itself, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – who had challenged him about his approach to a ceasefire and the return of hostages. Later that evening, Tel Aviv time, as Americans went to the polls, the Israeli military told national media that it was approaching “complete evacuation” in northern Gaza, and the residents would not be allowed to return.

Donald Trump’s victory would not be clear until the next morning in Israel, but Netanyahu acted as if his preferred candidate was already in the White House. The green light from the US government to carry out his war is apparently shining even brighter. That same night, Israeli Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen said humanitarian aid would no longer reach northern Gaza as there are “no more civilians left.”

“It’s a really scary statement because the intent is to leave nothing and no one alive,” said Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank. United Nations warned last week that “the entire Palestinian population in Northern Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of death from disease, famine and the ongoing bombardment.”

The Harris campaign and the Biden administration did not want to be seen as critical of Israel ahead of the election, according to Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel program at the Arab Center Washington DC. As a result, the Israeli government understood that they were on their way. to have a completely free hand to do whatever they wanted,” Munayyer said. “Netanyahu understood that he had an opportunity to do things in the last three months that he probably would have had a lot more backlash on if there wasn’t an election on the horizon.” That includes the pager attacks on Beirut and the assassination of Hezbollah leaders, he said.

Now, some Israeli officials want to gain control of northern Gaza by starving or killing the remaining Palestinians living in the area, following a proposal known as “The General’s Plan.” In late October, the Washington Post reported that Foreign Minister Antony Blinken questioned Netanyahu about this plan, according to a senior State Department official who requested anonymity. The State Department told Netanyahu that there was a perception that Israel was denying food to those who refused to leave the north — to which Netanyahu responded that this was “not our policy” and that this perception exists is “deeply harmful,” according to the official . . The Israeli prime minister also rejected a request by US officials that he publicly distance himself from those allegations, the Post reported.

Israeli attacks on Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon have continued over the past week, killing dozens of civilians. United Nations reported on X that Israeli security forces killed at least eight people in the West Bank on Tuesday and fatally shot an unarmed 14-year-old Palestinian boy two days earlier. On Wednesday, officials in the eastern city of Baalbek in Lebanon stated that at least 30 people were killed and 35 were injured in Israeli attacks. An Israeli air strike on Monday in northern Gaza killed 20 people – most of whom were women and children, according to Palestinian officials. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, wrote in a statement to The Intercept that the hospital, including the children’s ward, was directly targeted. The hospital in Beit Lahiya has been operating in a limited capacity after being raided by the Israeli military.

Gallant’s firing on Tuesday was also a controversial move and led to widespread protests across Israel. While Gallant previously described Israel’s fight as being against “human animals”, he has pushed harder than Netanyahu for a ceasefire with Hamas – believing it could be more effective than continued military pressure to free Israeli hostages. Gallant also clashed with Netanyahu over his desire to scrap one exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Elgindy notes that Netanyahu may have taken advantage of the timing of the US election to get rid of a popular critic in the government. “It would have ruffled feathers in Washington, especially in the Pentagon, where they have a very close relationship with (Gallant),” he said. Munayyer emphasizes that it probably had little to do with the US election – and more to do with domestic politics. “It’s something that’s been brewing for some time. … Netanyahu needed some degree of cohesion, and the defense minister was unwilling to fully play along with everything.”

How will Trump dealing with Israel and Gaza in his second term remains unclear. Trump has repeatedly said he wants peace in the Middle East and called on Israel to “finish the job.” He has that too Netanyahu said that he wants Israel’s war on Gaza to end when he takes office, which could inspire an intensification of Israeli military strikes in the coming months.

The rhetoric is vague enough that he has been able to win over some anti-war voters. (Trump won 42 percent of the vote in the majority Arab-American city of Dearborn, Michigan, where Jill Stein won 18 percent and Kamala Harris 36 percent, according to unofficial city results.) On the campaign trail, he specifically called for an end to suffering and destruction in Lebanon. “It’s a clever piece of talk. He chose the right words,” Elgindy said, “It was a free way for him to tap into that anger and resentment against Biden and Harris, and it largely worked.”

But Trump’s gesture towards anti-war rhetoric must be balanced with pro-Israel his base, his close advisers and his policy decisions while in power, Munayyer said. “We can’t put too much faith in what Trump says and does on the campaign trail to understand what he might do when he’s in office,” Munayyer said.

In Trump’s first term, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He made the United States the first country to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights – even though international law considers it occupied territory. The Trump administration also cut off US funding to UNRWA in 2018. “We know the staff that (Trump) had around him and who he’s likely to bring back or include in some way in his administration,” Munayyer said. “None of that bodes well for peacemaking.”

Last month, the United States warned Israel that it would consider stopping the flow of weapons if Israel did not intervene to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The US State Department gave Netanyahu a 30-day deadline; it expires on November 12. But by then it may be too late to have any real impact, given Trump’s inauguration in January. “Even if they were to take a harder line toward the Israeli government, it won’t last very long,” Munayyer said. “Netanyahu has a kind of stay of execution and has more time now to do as he wants.”