Israels plan for Gazas future

[MixedMetals]

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that he has instructed the IDF to prepare a plan to establish a "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah, which would eventually house the entire population of the Gaza Strip.

According to Katz, the plan involves moving 600,000 Palestinians, primarily from the al-Muwasi area, into the new zone after security screening. Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave, the defense minister said.

Katz added that, if conditions permit, construction of the "city" would begin during the 60-day Israel-Hamas cease-fire currently under negotiation.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-07/ty-article/.premium/defense-minister-israel-to-concentrate-all-gaza-population-in-rafah-humanitarian-zone/00000197-e56a-d1ad-ab97-e5ef764e0000

I don't really have the words for this. 2million people to be trapped on the ruins of rafah. For context Rafah had a population of a quarter of a million. Food will be controlled by outside agencies, everything entering controlled by outside agencies, who that will be we have no idea, no one can leave.

This is what peace looks like to Israel. This is what 'why doesn't Hamas just return the hostages and it will all be over' looks like. Palestinians trapped completely at Israels mercy with absolutely no self determination.

Reuters reported on Monday that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – a U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid organization – has proposed establishing camps described as "Humanitarian Transit Areas," both inside the Gaza Strip and potentially outside it, to house displaced Palestinians.

Thanks for sharing @MixedMetals . This is shocking. This jumped out at me from the article. Does this mean the ones running this open air prison are the ones running the absolute shit show that is the aid distribution.

Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave, the defense minister said.

So a concentration camp then?

Makes you wonder why neighbouring Arab countries won’t take in Palestinian refugees doesn’t it?

Isn’t that fairly standard in wartime?

Have any offered?

Palestinians have kept their refugee status for 77 years, why would they lose it now?

So all those who are taking this as true must also therefore believe that Israel is not committing genocide now then?

What is it an open air prison, concentration camp (nice play on what happened to the Jewish people there) or a genocide now?

I would imagine that it would be. I can't imagine that they would want to start from scratch again. Israel and Trump seem very pleased with GHF so I can't see why they would deviate from that tbh.

What is it an open air prison, concentration camp (nice play on what happened to the Jewish people there) or a genocide now?

Not quite sure what point you’re trying to make but in my view what’s happening to the Palestinian people iis about the Palestinian people.

True.

You'd wonder how as they have made such a mess of the current operation with aid sites in active combat zones, too few aid sites resulting in overcrowding and unsuitable aid being distributed
But then it was only created to appease the international community. There was no thought put into the details.

Gaza was already one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. This is just more abuse. How would you trust agents of genocide, murders of 17,000 children, to rebuild your home?

We’ve literally watched as Palestinians get slaughtered by the current Israeli gov. Desperate, precious children shot in their beautiful heads, while struggling to carry bags of rotten flour. 4 month old babies starving or looking terrified after an amputation. It’s the lowest. I don’t believe that Israel can be a holy place now.

My hope to all Palestinians and peaceful Israelis. My heart to all of the Israelis who have stood up to this. And all people around the world who have taken action to oppose this. Through them I believe there’s a glimmer of humanity left in the world.

The plot thickens but the GHF have dismissed the idea that they are involved:

The aid group, responding to questions from Reuters, denied that it had submitted a proposal and said the slides "are not a GHF document." GHF said it had studied "a range of theoretical options to safely deliver aid in Gaza," but that it "is not planning for or implementing Humanitarian Transit Areas (HTAs)."

Rather, the organization said it is solely focused on food distribution in Gaza.

A spokesperson for SRS, a for-profit contracting company that works with GHF, told Reuters "we have had no discussions with GHF about HTAs, and our 'next phase' is feeding more people. Any suggestion otherwise is entirely false and misrepresents the scope of our operations."

The document included the GHF name on the cover and SRS on several slides.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-backed-aid-group-proposed-human-transit-areas-palestinians-gaza-2025-07-07/

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday backed a proposal by President Donald Trump to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and turn the war-ravaged coastal enclave into a luxury waterfront development—a plan that has drawn international condemnation and could further complicate fragile cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas.

“It’s called free choice,” Netanyahu told reporters before a private dinner with the President in the White House. “If people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.”

Lock them up in a Rafah, control every morsel of food they get then call it a 'free choice' whether or not people stay or go.

“We’ll work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, those who don’t want to destroy us,” he added, “and we’ll work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands. Now, people will say, ‘It’s not a complete state, it’s not a state. It’s not that — we don’t care.”

'Peace' to Israel means they will always occupy Gaza, Palestinians will forever be without self determination and they don't care. Loud and proud.

Then the man wanted for war crimes who is openly talking about his plans for ethnic cleansing and forever illegal occupation nominated a sex offender for a Nobel Peace prize.

The future is bright.

time.com/7300767/gaza-netanyahu-trump-israel-palestine-hamas/

It’s a disgusting plan by disgusting humans…

No thats not what a concentration camp is, concentration camps are usually holding areas before mass executions start or where forced labour takes place.

Words matter, they mean things, if you don’t know what a concentration camp is it’s ok to not use the word.

Barely mentioned by the BBC coverage this morning. The silence is deafening.

Agreed.

Concentration camp does have connotations specific to one group - death camps for Jewish people - so alternative descriptions should be found unless people are deliberately trying to be provocative.

I can’t say it sounds much like a “humanitarian city” either - both descriptions sound wrong to me.

You are missing the big picture here, the Abraham accords are key to understanding what is going on here. There are wider movements in the arab world aiming towards stability and blocking Iranian influence. This really isn’t just about Israel and Gaza, for the GCC country thats the flashpoint but there are other considerations too.

The Saudis, Emirates, Syrian’s, Lebanese and Israelis are in the process of negotiations on multiple fronts at the moment. The Lebanese have been emptying Palestinian camps of weapons (as best they can) and have moved to reassert government controls over banking and security. The gulf countries are going to be trying to tie other arab nations into the abraham accords the Syrians have had diplomatic channels open with the Israelis for a while.

For Israels part in this the future of Gazans is an integral part of these negotiations. The gulf nations will want to remove Iranian influence (i.e, Hamas, Hezbollah) but they also won’t tolerate mass expulsions etc and have stipulated a peace plan has to be devised with Palestinians, their own population won’t tolerate anything less.

Whatever Israel is doing now will be with a movement towards ending the war.

Perhaps most news outlets are waiting for more clarity on the subject before reporting it. There seems to be some confusion about the matter at the moment. For example, people on here suggesting the GHF will be involved but they themselves saying they won’t be.

Yet the planning document had their name on it - possibly without their permission. It’s all a bit confusing whether it’s a plan or just one proposal amongst many. And if it’s a plan likely to come into effect, who will provide the aid.

I think tbh it’s a few things, I imagine the plan is to ID civilians and move them into secure areas without Hamas militants amongst them so they can finish whatever operational objectives they have without civilians all over the place. They still have hostages in Gaza and they are still collapsing and filling tunnels with concrete.

I’m not saying these camps are going to be nice or somewhere I would want to be but I seriously doubt that they are death camps.

I think anything to do with Gaza brings out the histrionics on mumsnet. They don’t stop to think what the function and purpose of things are or try to have curiosity about why something is happening or what the broader context is. I’ve seen some statements that are just objectively not true but they get repeated over and over because they are emotional trigger words.

Katz: We plan to eventually trap all Palestinians in Rafah. Once inside they won't be able to leave.

Netanyahu: We will occupy Gaza forever, they will never have self determination, we don't care.

Everybody: Hmm, let's wait til it's a little bit more clear what their plan is. Best to stay quiet, do nothing and see what happens.

Tbf if I were an army working in a densely populated area I would also not want civilians in my way, it makes everyone less safe. Soldiers in urban areas where enemy combatants aren’t wearing a uniform are more likely to inadvertently harm civilians. They are also more likely to be harmed because they can’t tell the difference between a combatant and a civilian until someone starts firing at them. Another way hamas gets civilians killed.

You should read up about the original concentration camps that were established by the British in the Anglo-Boer war.
They weren't initially set up as labour camps or as holding camps for mass extermination. The fact that nearly 50,000 people died from malnutrition and disease, or that the men from the black camps were made to work in British owned gold mines is not the point; they were supposedly set up for protection of the Boer population and to move black people off the land so that they couldn't supply food to the Boers who were fighting the British.

Don’t be silly, Israelis above all are pragmatic. They want normalisation with arab countries so they have to worry less about random rabid jihadis, the arab countries want normalisation so they have a bulwark against Iran. There are a lot of people highly incentivised to make this work. You aren’t looking at the wider politics of the middle east. You see things entirely through your feelings about Israel. This is not about how you feel. This is about security for multiple countries in the levant and the middle east.

I expect if normalisation happens everyone within the Abraham Accords will turn their attention to the Houthis.

7 October. The biggest self own in the history of self owning nations. Wonder if Hamas are regretting what their choices have bought upon their people?

I do hope / believe lots is going on behind the scenes to try to come to a workable solution- because obviously this isnt it. Let's hope other Arab states will be part of the longer term solution. I'm not getting terribly upset about something that hasnt happened yet. Still time for Hamas to stand down and hand over control of Gaza... wonder why takers are so few on the ground?

Abraham accords!!!! Everything here ties into stabilising, the Israelis aren’t going to have the Gazans doing back breaking labour, to make what!? They probably don’t want them there that long if they even do this because then they have to look after them. Use logic. Think about resourcing, logistics the political pressure for this to be done, both internal and external.

The fundamental problem here is that the motivations of Israel are ascribed to just being really really evil. People just stop thinking at that point.

Im not sure why you are trying to be patronising, does that usually make people listen to what you have to say?

It's not about what I feel. It's about what Netanyahu has said. What Katz has said.

What you said re Katz: We plan to eventually trap all Palestinians in Rafah. Once inside they won't be able to leave.

How the plan was reported by Reuters: It’s unclear if the zone would be used as a transit point, as described in a Reuters report earlier Monday that detailed plans for “Humanitarian Transit Areas” where Gazans could “temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”