The Israeli military plans to seize 75 percent of Gaza within the next two months as part of a full-scale ground offensive aimed at taking control of the entire territory, the army said during a Sunday briefing.
As part of the operation, Israel also intends to confine Gaza’s 2.2 million residents to three small zones: parts of Gaza City, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and Al-Mawasi in the south.
Preparations for the assault are underway. The Israeli army has deployed its entire standing force and armoured brigades to the Strip, and on Monday, the government announced plans to call up 450,000 reservists.
More than 80 percent of Gaza is now inaccessible to civilians, designated either as closed military zones or subject to evacuation orders. The Israeli army currently controls around 40 percent of the enclave.
On Monday, the Israeli military reiterated its demand for civilians in southern Gaza to move to Al-Mawasi, a narrow coastal strip just one kilometre wide and 14 kilometres long.
The area, already home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in tents, has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli airstrikes despite being labelled a "humanitarian zone".
Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told residents to leave immediately ahead of what he called an "unprecedented attack".
Since mid-March, Israel has issued dozens of displacement orders across Gaza. According to the UN, nearly half a million people have been forced to flee in the past 10 weeks alone.
Current Israeli army estimates suggest around one million people remain in Gaza City, 700,000 have been pushed into Al-Mawasi, and another 300,000 to 350,000 are sheltering in central Gaza.
According to documents seen by The Washington Post, the army and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an NGO created by Israeli officials to manage aid, plan to construct a network of camps in the three zones. These would be guarded by American private security contractors and designed to hold tens of thousands of civilians each.
Far-right ministers in the Israeli government have openly declared their goal of wiping out what remains of Gaza and carrying out the ethnic cleansing of its population.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently said the aim is to make life in Gaza so intolerable that people would "voluntarily" leave.
"They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation," he said at a settlements conference earlier this month.