Israel must apply pressure on Hamas by gradually depopulating the northern Gaza Strip, Eyal Ofer, an expert on Hamas and Gazan economics, said on Thursday.
As part of his suggested plan, Israel would subsequently annex and use the empty territory as a bargaining chip in hostage negotiations, Ofer said.
According to him, such pressure and attrition would weaken Hamas while avoiding a military operation.
“If someone wants to win this war, rather than just lose more soldiers in Gaza,” they must adopt a different approach, he noted.
Ofer offered to examine a few measures. He suggested assessing the legality of shutting off water to northern Gaza, emphasizing that such a move could apply significant pressure on both the civilian population and Hamas.
According to him, limiting water access would serve as a strong incentive for residents to move South.
Ofer maintained that Israel’s next step should then be deploying two artillery divisions, if feasible, to shell northern Gaza on a small scale before gradually intensifying attacks—particularly in the three-kilometer buffer zone along Israel’s border, which includes Beit Hanun, Beit Lahiya, and Al-Atatra.
Israel would then need to declare that the buffer zone – about 5% of the Gaza Strip—will be annexed to Israel. To further increase pressure, he suggested enforcing a policy where “every week without the return of hostages, the boundary will move by X meters—a permanent loss of land that will only grow as Hamas continues to stall.”
“In this process, no Israeli soldier needs to enter Gaza, at least for several months. The goal is to wear them down, demoralize them, and push them south, closer to Egypt,” he said.
With regard to the Philadelphi Corridor, Ofer said that Israel has no strategic need to maintain a presence in it, adding, “If a security need arises in the future, it can be retaken.”
He also noted that such a strategy would put pressure on Egypt: “If the Egyptians attempt to smuggle weapons into Gaza, they themselves should fear the possibility of receiving a million refugees in Sinai.”
Striking Hamas’s fuel reserves
According to Ofer, Israel must conduct strikes on Hamas’s fuel reserves, particularly the 12 million liters stored at the Nuseirat power plant.
He also called to target gas stations, tractors, generators, and other infrastructure in northern Gaza that sustained Hamas’s operations.
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