Palestinian, human rights activists slam Israeli defense minister's plan to build camps on the ruins of Rafa
Critics issued an alarm Tuesday after the Israeli defense minister said he planned to move all Palestinians in Gaza to a camp at the southern end of the enclave where the war exploded, according to Israeli media reports.
Some say that this would violate international law and be equivalent to a crime against humanity.
Katz, Israel told reporters at a press conference on Monday that he ordered the Israeli military to prepare for the move, which would create a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafa.
According to the Israel Times, the military plan initially held about 600,000 Palestinians in the Rafah area, which was razed by the Israeli military in the ongoing war – with about 2 million people who moved to the territory.
Katz said Palestinians are not allowed to leave the area.
He claimed the plan was intended to weaken the power of the Palestinian militant group Hamas over the Gaza population.
It is unclear whether Katz's plan is related to a proposal seen by Reuters on Monday, carrying the name of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial U.S. and Israel-backed aid group that describes a plan that creates a large camp called the “human transit zone” inside the “human transit zone” that may be internal – possibly overseas – and possibly the population living in the Palestinian the Palestinian.
Palestinians flatly reject the idea
As the plan re-issued lawsuits regarding potential relocation or forced transfer of Palestinians, Gaza's plan rejected the plan, saying they refused to further displace.
Nidal Bliha, 43, told CBC press freedom photographer Mohamed El Saife on Tuesday. “We will stay in the Gaza Strip. Even if we die, we will not leave.”
“It's a ridiculous idea, and it's ridiculous to execute it,” Zaher, 36, told CBC News.
According to a new Amnesty International report, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israel-backed group, took over the aid allocation in Gaza a month ago – using a militarized aid mechanism that allows Israel to use hunger as a weapon of war and impose genocide on genocide. Amnesty International's Budour Hassan said ground-based people would receive aid acquisitions as “painful” efforts. Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.7575953
The United Nations has long warned that the forcibly transfer or deportation of the population of the occupied territories is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law and “temptations involving ethnic cleansing.”
Samar al-Basyouni, a 39-year-old mother from northern Gaza, said she had been displaced 17 times in the 21-month war.
“God will, nothing happens, we will not be displaced,” Al-Basyouni refers to Katz’s comment.
“We are from the North and God wants us to return to our main location North.”
“Massive” camp described in the $2B plan: Reuters
Reuters reported on Monday that the $20 billion U.S. plan, which was formulated sometime after February 11, was submitted to the Trump administration, one of whom said said there was a recent discussion at the White House, according to two sources.
The document describes the camps as “massive” and “voluntary” places where Palestinians can temporarily live, replace, reintegrate and prepare for relocation so that they are willing to do so. ”
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of the Refugee International Advocacy Group and a former senior official at the U.S. International Development Agency, reviewed the plans seen by Reuters.
“In the continuous bombing of the population that has been around for nearly two years, there is no voluntary displacement and has been isolated from basic aid,” he said.
The U.S. State Department has approved $30 million in U.S. funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, calling on other countries to support controversial groups that have provided assistance to war-torn Gaza.
Reuters cannot independently determine the status of the plan, create and submit the status of the plan, or whether it is still being considered.
In response to Reuters, GHF denied that it made a proposal and said the slides were “not GHF files”.
GHF said it has studied “a range of theoretical options that can safely provide assistance in Gaza”, but it “has no plans or implementation of humanitarian transit zones.”
The White House and Israeli embassy did not respond to requests for comment in the United States.
Plans will constitute crimes against humanity: critics
Human rights advocates criticized Kaz's plan.
Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard told the Guardian newspaper that Katz “developed an operational plan for crime against humanity.”
Sfard said moving the population to a corner of southern Gaza would be prepared to deport it.
“Although the government will still deport and voluntarily deport, people in Gaza have taken so many coercive measures that they cannot be considered consent in legal sense,” Sfard said.
Amos Goldberg, a historian of the Hebrew University Holocaust in Jerusalem, said Katz’s plan is equivalent to bringing people across Gaza to “concentration camps or transit camps for Palestinians before expelling Palestinians.”
“It's neither a humanitarian nor a city,” Goldberg told the Guardian, who also questioned what would happen if Palestinians refused to move to camps or exert firm resistance.
Progress in moving Palestinians out of Gaza: Trump
In addition, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, showing that it was controversial to move Palestinians out of Gaza amid controversial efforts.
Netanyahu said the dinner between U.S. and Israeli officials began to tell reporters that the United States and Israel were working with other countries that would bring a “bright future” for Palestinians, suggesting that residents of Gaza could move to neighboring countries.
“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made free and optimistic ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ahead of the dinner meeting.
Trump, who was initially handed to Netanyahu when asked about the Palestinian relocation, said help was being provided across Israel. Both leaders are expected to meet again Tuesday night, Trump said.
Earlier this year, Trump relocated Palestinians on a floating site and took over the Gaza Strip, turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The idea has been widely criticized by Palestinians who vowed to stay in Gaza and the international community, including humanitarian groups such as Human Rights Watch. In March, Arab leaders responded to Trump's plan by adopting a reconstruction alternative that would cost $53 billion but avoid relocating Palestinians.
The plan for Reuters' review, which Reuters called on Monday, has promoted Trump's “Vision of Gaza.”
According to Israeli Tallies, on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led combatants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages of 251, triggered the latest bloodshed in decades in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are still about 50 hostages in Gaza, and 20 are believed to be alive.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel's military attack on the enclave killed more than 57,500 Palestinians and razed most of its territory while placing most Palestinians on rubble multiple times.
