EX-NSC deputy head claims gov’t secretly approved ‘General’s Plan,’ calls on soldiers to refuse to carry out ‘war crime’

Former National Security Council deputy director Eran Etzion says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet secretly passed a decision to implement the so-called General’s Plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas terrorists.

If implemented, the highly controversial plan could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes after being ordered to flee by the IDF.

The IDF has denied carrying out such a plan, though government officials have yet to do the same on record. However, during the first two weeks of October, no aid was allowed in to northern Gaza. The past week has seen a shift, with over 120 aid trucks being allowed in.

“This plan is a war crime,” writes Etzion, who previously served under Netanyahu and has since become a major critic of the premier. “And if this is not serious enough, this was done after the American administration announced in writing, in an unprecedented letter from the secretary of state and defense secretary, that the implementation of this plan or moves similar to it would result in an American arms embargo on Israel.”

“If you are a soldier or an officer… it is your duty to refuse to take part in any action that constitutes a war crime,” Etzion says. “And if [you] do not serve, it is your duty to call on those who do to refuse to take part in a war crime.”

He accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of advancing policies that will lead Israel’s soldiers to international war tribunals.