Former Israeli Prime Ministers Yair Lapid and Ehud Olmert have sharply criticized the Netanyahu government’s controversial plan to relocate over two million Palestinians into a so-called “humanitarian city” built on the rubble of Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, warning that the proposed relocation amounts to the creation of concentration camps and a pathway to ethnic cleansing.
Speaking separately over the weekend, Lapid told Israeli Army Radio, “It’s a bad idea from every possible perspective security, political, economic, and logistical,” adding, “If exiting it is prohibited, then it is a concentration camp.”
Olmert, in a statement to The Guardian, went further: “It is a concentration camp. I am sorry. When they build a camp where they plan to ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza… this is not to save [Palestinians]; it is to deport them, to push them, and to throw them away.”
The Israeli government says the “humanitarian city” will house more than 600,000 displaced Palestinians currently sheltering in the overcrowded area of al-Mawasi, and eventually relocate the entire population of Gaza there.
But rights groups, former Israeli leaders, and international agencies have condemned the plan as a pretext to forcibly depopulate Gaza.
Recent satellite images show rapid Israeli demolition operations in Rafah, with the number of destroyed buildings rising from 15,800 in April to 28,600 by July 4, signaling preparations for mass resettlement.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, which was banned by Israel earlier this year, warned that the plan “would de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt,” likening it to a “second Nakba” a reference to the 1948 mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.
“This would deprive Palestinians of any prospects of a better future in their homeland,” Lazzarini said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump have publicly endorsed the idea of relocating Gaza’s population. Netanyahu recently told Trump during a dinner that Israel is working “very closely” with the U.S. to “find countries” willing to take in Palestinians.
President Trump echoed the sentiment, saying, “We’ve had great cooperation from [countries] surrounding Israel,” and hinted that “something good will happen soon.”
However, neighboring Arab states and Palestinians themselves have rejected the idea outright, calling it a nonstarter and a violation of international law.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) a U.S. – and Israeli-backed NGO is reportedly spearheading logistical groundwork for the forced relocation under the guise of humanitarian aid. According to Reuters, the GHF proposed building “humanitarian transit areas” in and around Gaza to facilitate population control and eventual deportation.
Though initially framed as aid centers, these camps are described in internal documents as places where Palestinians could “temporarily reside, DE radicalize, re-integrate, and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”
Since May, Israeli forces have killed at least 800 Palestinians seeking food at GHF distribution points, according to local sources.
Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told the media that Israel’s endgame is clear: “This is about the physical destruction of Gaza, the engineered collapse of Palestinian society, and the forcible depopulation of the Strip.”
“They’re trying to make daily life so unbearable that Palestinians will ‘voluntarily’ leave. But make no mistake this is coercion under the gun,” Rahman said.
