What is ‘Gideon’s Chariots’, Israel’s latest plan for Gaza?

The Israeli army is planning to seize complete control of the Gaza Strip, displace the entire population to a small area of land in the south and provide Palestinians with only enough food so they don’t starve to death, as part of an expanded military operation ominously called “Gideon’s Chariots”.

Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approved the plan late on 4 May, hours after the country’s military said it was strengthening its capacity to operate in the besieged Palestinian territory by mobilising tens of thousands of reservists.

The plan, aspects of which are already being implemented, will fully commence if a deal isn’t reached on the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas by the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week, Israeli media have reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes, confirmed the plan in a social media video following the cabinet meeting.

“[Gaza’s] population will be moved,” Netanyahu said in a video message posted on X, adding that Israeli soldiers won’t go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat.

“One thing will be clear: there will be no in-and-out. We’ll call up reserves to come, hold territory – we’re not going to enter and then exit the area, only to carry out raids afterward.

“That’s not the plan. The intention is the opposite of that.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly referred to his plan as the “final stage” of the war, despite mounting criticism from aid and rights groups that famine is stalking the entire population.

Since resuming its offensive on 18 March after reneging on a ceasefire deal, Israel has refused to allow any aid into the besieged enclave.

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have defended the tactic as well as the wanton destruction, claiming military pressure is the only way to secure the release of the 59 captives still being held in Gaza.

According to multiple Israeli media reports, Israeli forces will occupy the entire Gaza Strip and expel the Palestinian population to a new area that will be built in the southwest, an area between the Morag axis and the Philadelphi corridor.

The new area will be cut off from the coast and bordered to the east by an ever-expanding buffer zone that Israel has established along the barrier fence between Gaza and Israel, according to a map published by Israel’s Kan 11 channel.

According to the Israeli news website Ynet, the ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ plan – named after Gideon, a biblical warrior who led a few hundred fighters in annihilating the Midianites, an ancient Arabic nomadic tribe – will be carried out in three stages.

These have been named as the “preparations” stage, the “population mobilisation” stage and the “ground manoeuvre.”

According to Ynet, the “preparations” stage began a few weeks ago when the Israeli military began destroying all critical infrastructure in the southern district of Rafah, including residential buildings. 

As part of this phase, which will last until Trump’s visit to the Middle East on 16 May, the Israeli military will complete “preparations in the Rafah area for the long stay of nearly two million Gazans who will arrive there during the second phase.”

As a result, Rafah will become a “sterile” area where Palestinians will only be allowed entry after being checked by security forces.

“The IDF [Israeli army], in cooperation with the Shin Bet [Israel’s domestic security agency], will set up checkpoints on the main roads that will lead to the areas where the Gazan civilians will be housed in the Rafah area,” the report said.

In the new area, which Israel has dubbed a “humanitarian zone”, a number of aid distribution points will be set up, where private American security contractors will also handle the distribution of aid.

According to reports, Israeli soldiers will guard the area and only 60 trucks of food will be allowed into the strip per day – just a tenth of the volume permitted during the ceasefire.

‘Intense fire’

As per the second “population mobilisation” stage, the Israeli army will employ “intense fire” throughout the enclave and demand that all Palestinians leave their homes and go to the new site in Rafah. 

According to Ynet, the second phase has two goals: “Creating pressure on Hamas to stopping fighting, and to bring many Gazans closer to the border crossings near Egypt and Israel and to the beach,” with the aim of encouraging Palestinians to “voluntarily leave” the Gaza Strip, “and thus fulfill the Trump plan.” 

Earlier this year, Trump proposed his controversial and widely rejected plan to “just clean out” Gaza, with the US president demanding Egypt and Jordan take in Palestinians.

According to Ynet, Israel is already negotiating with several countries to take in Palestinians who will then be deported as part of the plan.

According to the Israeli news outlet, the supply of humanitarian aid will also recommence in this stage but it will only be distributed in the new area in the south.

“The aid will be much smaller in scope than it was until it was completely stopped,” the report said, referring to the amount of humanitarian aid that came in before Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza in early March.

The population that will arrive at the humanitarian compound “will receive all essential needs,” it added.

According to a report in Israeli Army Radio, aid will only be distributed once a week and will be given to a representative from each family.

“A representative from each Gaza family will be allowed to come to the distribution centres and receive the aid in a measured amount only for his family,” the report said.

The Israeli army estimates that the average Palestinian family consumes about 70kg of food per week. Therefore, “each representative of a Gaza family will receive exactly the amount that is sufficient for his family to prevent a situation of starvation.”

According to the UN’s humanitarian office, Ocha, 92 percent of children aged six months to two years – and their mothers – are not receiving the minimum required nutrition, while 65 percent of Gaza’s population lacks access to clean drinking water.

Conquering the Gaza Strip

According to Ynet, as sick and wounded Palestinians are taken out of the enclave, the Israeli army will commence the third phase, which, according to the military’s estimates, may take several months, in which a large-scale manoeuvre is expected.

The aim of this phase is to conquer the Gaza Strip and to remain in the occupied places for a long time. 

As part of this phase, the Israeli army “will act systematically, to flatten the structures that could serve as fighting cover for Hamas, and will work to expose and destroy the tunnels that could be used by the terrorist organisation in a surprise guerrilla warfare against the forces on the ground,” the report said.

Late on Monday, Israeli army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said the offensive “will include a wide-scale attack and the movement of the majority of the strip’s population.”

“This is to protect them in an area sterile of Hamas and continued air strikes, elimination of terrorists and dismantling of infrastructure,” he added.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who has also backed the plan, has said “Israel will strive to keep in its hands areas that have been cleared and annexed to the security zone beyond the March lines.”

Katz has added that “in any temporary or permanent arrangement, Israel will not leave the security zone around Gaza, which is intended to protect the [Israeli] towns and prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas.”

If Israel and Hamas do not reach an agreement on another deal, “the voluntary emigration plan for the residents of Gaza, especially the residents who will be concentrated in the south [in the Rafah compound] outside of Hamas control, will be part of the goals of the operation,” Katz said.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who sits on the security cabinet and holds significant sway over Netanyahu, who relies on his support to keep the government from collapsing, has also welcomed the plan.

“Once we conquer and stay – we can talk about sovereignty [over Gaza]. But I didn’t demand that it be included in the war’s objectives,” he said.

“Once the manoeuvre begins – there will be no withdrawal from the territories we’ve captured, not even in exchange for hostages,” he added. 

‘We could lose them’

Despite Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approving the plan, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has warned ministers that Israel “could lose” the captives if it launches a major operation in the strip.

“In a plan for a full-scale manoeuvre, we won’t necessarily reach the hostages,” Zamir was quoted as saying. “Keep in mind that we could lose them.”

Zamir was also quoted as saying that the war’s two goals of defeating Hamas and rescuing the captives are “problematic in relation to each other.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main organisation of the captives’ families, has long argued this, but political leaders, including Netanyahu, have repeatedly claimed military pressure is the only way to secure the release of the captives.

“The chief of staff’s warning should keep every Israeli awake at night,” the forum said.

“An overwhelming majority of the nation is united around the understanding that an Israeli victory cannot be achieved without bringing the hostages home. Losing the hostages would mean an Israeli defeat. National security and social stability depend on the return of all the hostages – every last one.”

In spite of this, Smotrich argued on Monday that victory will only be announced when “Gaza is completely destroyed, its citizens are concentrated south of the Morag axis, and are beginning to leave in large numbers to third countries.”

International aid agencies, including those working in the occupied Palestinian territories, have rejected Israel’s plan for aid distribution, saying it appeared “designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items” and would fail to ensure aid reached Gaza’s most vulnerable residents.

“The UN Secretary-General and the Emergency Relief Coordinator have made clear that we will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” the groups said in a joint statement.

On Friday, Amnesty International called on Israel to end its siege on Gaza, which it called “a genocidal act, a blatant form of unlawful collective punishment, and the war crime of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”. 

To date, Israel’s war has killed at least 52,615 Palestinians and wounded 118,752, the vast majority of whom are women, children and the elderly.