US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to hold a “friendly and productive” discussion about the Israeli government’s plan—known as the “General’s Plan”—to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and kill all Palestinians who remain.
While the extermination plan was not mentioned in the public readouts from either government, US officials told multiple newspapers that it was a central focus of the discussion.
In its report of the meeting, the Washington Post wrote:
US officials told Netanyahu there is a “perception” that Israel is pursuing a strategy of “isolating the north, telling people that if they don’t leave they’re effectively targets and denying food to go in,” said the official.
When Israeli officials made pro forma claims that this was not the official government policy, “US officials then insisted that Netanyahu should ‘go to greater lengths’” to say that publicly, the official said, adding that the Israelis declined to make such a commitment.
In other words, US officials acknowledged that they were aware of the Netanyahu government’s mass extermination plan, and when they asked it to publicly declare that it was not the policy, the Israeli government refused.
In response to this blunt declaration, Blinken issued a communique declaring the United States’ blanket support for Israel: “The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security” and pledged to continue “ongoing efforts by the United States and its partners” to support Israel.
In their discussions, Israeli officials allegedly told Blinken that they were increasing food to Gaza—a ridiculous falsehood contradicted by reports from multiple human rights agencies, which have indicated that less food has been allowed into Gaza this month than ever before. Blinken allegedly accepted this claim, with the New York Times reporting, “Mr. Blinken acknowledged to them that the United States had seen some recent improvement.”
The significance of Blinken’s visit is clear: He has given the United States’ stamp of approval for the ethnic cleansing, mass starvation and ultimate annexation and settlement of northern Gaza by Israel. The communique’s assertion that the United States is calling for more food to enter Gaza constitutes nothing but wartime disinformation, aimed at hiding the fact that the United States government fully supports and enables the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Over the past year, the United States has provided Israel with $17.9 billion in aid, including more than 14,000 2,000-pound bombs, which have been used to destroy or damage the majority of buildings in Gaza, effectively leveling the enclave. This month, the US announced the deployment of US combat troops to support Israel’s war throughout the Middle East.
Blinken’s visit was timed to correspond with a rally addressed by Israeli government officials on the Gaza border in an event titled “Preparing to Resettle Gaza.”
“We can renew settlements in Gaza,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told rally participants, to the sound of explosions over the Gaza border and smoke in the distance.
Ben-Gvir called for Israel to “encourage emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, declaring, “We’re giving you the option, leave to other countries, the Land of Israel is ours.”
One conference participant was even more direct in remarks to Sky News regarding the Palestinians in Gaza: “We should kill them, every last one of them. And if the government won’t do that, then we should just kick them out. This is our land.”
As Blinken met with Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir called for the displacement of the Palestinians, the ethnic cleansing operation was in full force.
In a statement on Tuesday, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), gave a harrowing account of life in Gaza:
Nearly three weeks of non-stop bombardments from the Israeli Forces as the death toll increases. Our staff report they cannot find food, water, or medical care. The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied. In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die. They feel deserted, hopeless, and alone. They live from one hour to the next, fearing death at every second.
The United Nations warned on Tuesday, “The number of people facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity is projected to increase three-fold between November 2024 and April 2025, and an estimated 60,000 children between six and 59 months are projected to become acutely malnourished over the coming year.”
Over the weekend, the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories reported that orders by the Israel Defense Forces are “leading to forced displacement” and “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governorate through death and displacement.”
The Palestinian information agency WAFA reported that 70 people were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the total since the start of Israel’s assault on northern Gaza this month to over 700. Since the start of the genocide, 42,000 people have been killed, according to official figures, while a study published in The Lancet estimated that the real death toll could be 186,000 or more. A report by the United Nations warned that Gaza’s human development index had fallen to a level equivalent to 1955, erasing over 69 years of progress.
Israel simultaneously continued its assault on Lebanon, leveling multiple high-rise apartment blocks.
Blinken’s visit also comes as the full scope of Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon came into focus. On Tuesday, the Financial Times (FT) reported the contents of a leaked document prepared by one of the countries participating in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, showing that Israeli troops launched over a dozen separate attacks on UN peacekeepers over the past months, including with white phosphorus munitions. The report noted, “Israel’s military forcibly entered a clearly marked UN base and is suspected of using the incendiary chemical white phosphorus close enough to injure 15 peacekeepers.”
According to the FT, “Israeli troops have targeted Unifil, the UN-mandated force deployed along the de facto border between the countries, on multiple occasions. They have damaged several facilities and caused injuries to troops stationed at border posts in southern Lebanon.”
The FT report added, “Israeli forces began directly firing onto Unifil bases after October 8. … In one incident on October 10, two peacekeepers were injured when an IDF Merkava tank fired at an observation tower at the international force’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall.”