Israel's plan to have 'concentration camps' in Rafah terrifies displaced Palestinians in Gaza

An Israeli plan to construct what it calls a "closed humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza has sparked a wave of outrage and alarm, with many Palestinians warning of an orchestrated scheme to forcibly displace the population from the coastal enclave. 

The proposal, presented on Tuesday by Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz, aims to relocate some 600,000 Palestinians into a tightly controlled zone west of Rafah known as Al-Mawasi, in what amounts to basically a concentration camp.

The plan would hand over civilian management to international aid agencies while the Israeli military maintains full control over security and movement, according to Israeli outlets.

Israeli broadcaster Kan 11 described the proposal as a way to "separate civilians from Hamas fighters," with screening procedures and movement restrictions built into its framework.

However, many Palestinians, who separately spoke to The New Arab, described the plan as a concentration camp for internment and expulsion under a humanitarian guise.

"This isn't a humanitarian city; it's a concentration camp built atop our destroyed homes," Mohammed Rayyan, a 41-year-old taxi driver from northern Gaza and is now displaced in Gaza City, remarked to TNA.

"They want to trap us behind fences, cut us off from the world, and then push us to leave. It's forced displacement disguised as aid," he said.

Rayyan, who has been displaced multiple times since Israel launched its war on Gaza in late 2023, called the plan the newest chapter in a decades-long policy of erasure.

"This is a continuation of Israeli policies since 1948. The goal has always been to drive us out and replace us with settlers. International law means nothing to Israel," he said, accusing the United States of complicity. "This plan couldn't happen without Washington's backing."

A façade 

Gaza-based journalist Yousef Taha echoed these sentiments, describing the so-called 'humanitarian zone' as a cover for what he sees as a premeditated campaign of demographic engineering.

"What Israel is calling a humanitarian solution is in fact a massive detention zone. Palestinians would be confined behind gates, stripped of their freedom and rights, and pushed slowly toward forced exile," Taha remarked to TNA.

Taha argued that the proposal is not an isolated initiative, but rather part of a strategic trajectory that extends across the occupied Palestinian territories.

"This isn't a temporary measure […] It's part of a long-term plan to empty the land, whether in the West Bank, Jerusalem, or Gaza, by making life so unbearable that people feel they have no choice but to leave," he said.

He pointed to past statements by US officials as laying the groundwork. "When Trump called Gaza 'unliveable,' it wasn't just rhetoric; it was setting the stage for what we're seeing now," he said.

"This is a modern Nakba, orchestrated with new tools, legitimised by global institutions, and enforced by Israeli military power," he added.

International organisations, Taha warned, risk becoming complicit if they agree to manage what he calls "a humanitarian façade for ethnic cleansing."

In Deir al-Balah, Umm Muhammad Asaliya, a 38-year-old mother of five, spoke with TNA from the shelter where she and her family have taken refuge after fleeing Israeli bombardment in the north.

"Since the war began, we've been running from one bombing to the next," she said. "Now they want to lock us inside a fenced concentration camp with no water, no medicine, no future. This isn't humanitarian. It’s a big prison for us."

Despite the trauma and deprivation, Asaliya insisted that her family and she would not give up their homeland.

"For two years, we've been living in a new Nakba, but we won't leave voluntarily. This is our land. No matter how harsh it gets, we will not become easy victims of this criminal plan," she said.

Prison with no future

Although heavily promoted in Israeli media, the plan has reportedly stirred unease within Israel's security establishment.

According to the Hebrew-language daily Maariv, Israeli Chief of Staff General Eyal Zamir rejected the proposal during internal discussions, citing the absence of a coherent security and logistical strategy.

Zamir reportedly warned that implementing the plan would necessitate a substantial military presence and risk further escalating an already volatile situation.

Officially, the proposal has yet to be approved by Israel's political and security cabinet, casting doubt over its viability and exposing possible internal divisions over how to proceed in Gaza.

Palestinian political analysts believe the proposed mass relocation would constitute a grave breach of international law. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, forced displacement of civilians in occupied territories is classified as a war crime.

Hussam al-Dajani, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza, argued that the plan is built on coercion, not concern for civilians.

"The goal is not to separate Hamas from civilians, it is to engineer hunger, despair, and displacement […] This is a systematic policy of demographic cleansing, and potentially, genocide," al-Dajani told TNA.

"Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated under international law to ensure food, water, and medical care for civilians. Instead, it's weaponising deprivation to force people out," he said.

Al-Dajani also accused the US of backing the plan to solidify Israeli regional dominance while pivoting strategically toward Asia.

"This is about more than Gaza. It's about reshaping the region while silencing the Palestinian issue," he said.

The timing of the announcement, he argued, is deliberate. "Katz unveiled this plan in the middle of sensitive ceasefire talks. It's clearly meant to sabotage negotiations. Netanyahu has no intention of ending the war. He's using diplomacy as a smokescreen to implement facts on the ground," he added.

As Gaza endures more than 20 months of an Israeli war, blockade, and forced displacement, many Palestinians fear they are on the verge of another catastrophe, one that could erase their presence from their homeland.

Although the plan is not yet in effect, its public disclosure by a senior Israeli official, along with behind-the-scenes coordination with international actors, suggests that preparations are quietly advancing.

With ceasefire negotiations faltering and Israeli airstrikes continuing, a new phase of the conflict may be emerging, one that goes beyond destroying homes to uprooting an entire people from their land.