The Gaza playbook: Israel’s five-step ethnic cleansing strategy

Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee Gaza City's eastern neighbourhood of Shujaiya following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military on 3 April 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

The notion of “Greater Israel” represents a foundational goal of Zionism and the Israeli political elite. For decades, Israel has worked to carry out the mass transfer of Arab populations from historic Palestine.

For Israel’s current leadership, as well as large swathes of Israeli society, the war on Gaza has presented what they see as a pivotal opportunity: the chance to remove Palestinians from Gaza once and for all.

Since the beginning of the war in October 2023, Israel has signalled its desire to rid Gaza of its Palestinian population. For most of the war, however, Israeli leaders have been hesitant to state the plan – which amounts to ethnic cleansing – explicitly.

As Israel moves closer to implementing its overarching goal, it is important to examine its path towards ethnic cleansing, which follows a comprehensive five-step programme.

Israel is a veteran of ethnic cleansing – having carried out, in 1948, one of the largest such campaigns of modern times. Since then, it has continued a slower-motion campaign, primarily in the West Bank, where it has seized vast tracts of Palestinian land, established more than 200 illegal settlements and outposts and brought in approximately 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers.

Israel’s illegal settlement expansion programme involves routine land confiscation, home and neighbourhood demolitions, and forced population transfer.

Step 1 – Muzzling the media

Drawing on decades of practice removing Palestinians from their land, the current Israeli leadership recognised that, as a first step to depopulating Gaza, critical media coverage needed to be limited as much as possible. To this end, and from the start of the war, Israel cut Gaza off from the outside world.

In October 2023, Israel tightened the seals on Gaza’s borders and barred international journalists from entering the strip. That same month, it informed Agence France-Presse and Reuters that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists in Gaza.

During ceasefire negotiations in November 2023, Israel’s closest ally and chief financier, the US, reportedly expressed concern that a temporary pause in fighting could allow greater international media access to Gaza. In response, Israel and the US likely worked to ensure the continued closure of Gaza’s borders during what turned out to be a six-day pause in hostilities.

Israel has also systematically targeted journalists – more than 200 have been killed in Gaza so far, a world record in modern conflict. Two weeks ago, Israel bombed a media tent, burning Palestinian journalist Ahmad Mansour alive. His final moments were captured in harrowing mobile phone footage. Israel has additionally banned multiple media outlets within its own borders and shut down Al Jazeera offices in both Israel and the West Bank.

Step 2 – Shrinking the population

The second step of Israel’s ethnic cleansing plan has involved exterminating as many Palestinians as possible, mostly through relentless, large-scale aerial bombardment. In a cabinet meeting in late 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of his desire to “thin” the p 100:1 targeting ratio, a system that allows the Israeli military to kill “more than 100” civilians in the course of targeting a single Hamas commander.

Various “kill zone” policies ensure that Israeli soldiers shoot first and ask questions later. As one Israeli commander recently told troops: “Everyone you encounter is an enemy. If you see a figure, open fire, neutralise the threat, and keep moving. Do not hesitate and do not second-guess.”

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