Israeli war crimes have become ever more blatant and undisguised, but the plan for Rafah is a new phase in the goal of removing Palestinians from the strip, explains Zahid Rahman

On Monday, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, announced plans to create a ‘humanitarian city’ within the rubble of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The proposal is that initially 600,000 Palestinians would be made to reside there, with the long-term aim being for it to contain the entire civilian population of the territory.

In the twenty-one months of genocide, the boldness of Israeli leaders has evolved. Heinous crimes have reached a stage where the Israeli state, at times, does not bother to lie or even hide its actions. What was seen as intolerable only less than two years ago is now an accepted reality. A key example of this was when the Israeli Defence Forces bombed the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza in October 2023. Israel, Western governments, and the media aired misinformation and attempted to gaslight people around the world that Israel would never target hospitals. Since then, the WHO has documented almost seven hundred separate attacks on health facilities.

The same is happening with ethnic cleansing. While Israel and its supporters have denied accusations of ethnic cleansing in Gaza for most of this crisis, Israeli leaders are now openly stating their intentions. Katz has reaffirmed his desire for the ‘voluntary’ emigration of Gazans to materialise through this new ‘humanitarian-city’ plan, stating it ‘will happen’.

Emigration to third countries will never be voluntary for Gaza’s residents. Housing units, health and education facilities, the local economy, and vital infrastructure: every aspect of life has been significantly diminished or destroyed. Facing such a hellscape, Palestinian emigration from Gaza would be very far from voluntary. The options offered to Palestinians is that of a choice made at gunpoint: either starve amidst the rubble of Gaza, uncertain you will survive the day you’ve woken up to, or leave. Plainly, ethnic cleansing.

The new ‘humanitarian city’ is, by its intended purpose, a concentration camp, where Palestinians would be incentivised or coerced into entering and never be permitted to leave. From then on, Israel would try to dispose of the Palestinians through their greater control of the population. The narrative that this is somehow ‘humanitarian’, that Palestinians would receive humanitarian relief within the camp, is reminiscent of the narrative launched around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its aid-distribution system. That system was purposefully inadequate, deadly with the shooting deaths of hundreds of Palestinian aid seekers, and the location of distribution sites almost exclusively in southern Gaza aiding Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing.

The timing of this announcement is eye-opening. Whilst the Israeli defence minister was announcing his plans, Netanyahu was in the White House that same day (7 July) discussing topics like Gaza’s future with Donald Trump. Trump’s proposal earlier this year to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants and create a playground for the world’s richest neatly fits in with the new plan to concentrate Palestinians in Rafah and efforts to remove them from the territory. David Lammy, instead of condemnation, merely referred to Israel’s plans as ‘a sticking point’ in ceasefire negotiations, further cementing our government’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes.

The plans announced on Monday are an abhorrent expression of the intent to cleanse Gaza of its residents, thinly veiled in the language of humanitarianism. The conditions forced upon the Palestinians are calculated to bring about their destruction as a community in the Gaza Strip, and it has reached its most critical phase. This war of annihilation would not have continued without American-made planes dropping American-made bombs, without intelligence provided by British spy planes and without the full diplomatic backing of the Western powers.

Therefore, the Palestine movement in Britain has to increase its momentum. The demonstrations have caused a stark disruption to the British political system, forcing the political class into making significant changes in policy, including the partial arms ban last September and the sanctioning of two Israeli ministers last month. Both of these actions are woefully inadequate in ending the genocide, but signify major shifts caused by the protests held in solidarity with the Palestinians. Crucially, this means the demonstrations must be sustained and as large as possible, however long it takes.