The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warns of the catastrophic consequences of the recently announced Israeli plan to take full control of Gaza City, empty it of its residents, and forcibly displace them to the south of the Gaza Strip. This development is part of a systematic scheme to erase Palestinian cities and force the population into less than 5% of the Strip’s territory, paving the way for their expulsion beyond its borders in what would be the largest act of ethnic cleansing in the occupied Palestinian territory since the Nakba. Meanwhile, the international community either remains silent or proves unable to take serious action to stop the genocide, now entering its twenty-third month.
PCHR expresses deep concern and strong condemnation over last Friday’s announcement by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that the Security Cabinet had approved a plan that includes “preparing to take control of Gaza City, while ensuring the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians outside the combat zones.” According to the announcement, the plan is based on five core principles, including the imposition of full Israeli security control over the entire Gaza Strip and the establishment of an alternative civilian administration unaffiliated with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.1
The decision to resume a full-scale ground assault on Gaza City, alongside an explicit plan to depopulate it of its residents and internally displaced persons (IDPs), marks a grave escalation threatening the lives of one million people. This figure includes both original city residents and IDPs from North Gaza Governorate, most of whom were recently pushed into the western part of Gaza City following weeks of displacement campaigns. These moves are the practical execution of the mass forced displacement order issued by the Israeli authorities on 13 October 2023, which marked a new stage in Israel’s long-standing policy of large-scale forced population transfer.
Over the past 22 months, Israeli forces have issued hundreds of forced displacement orders targeting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, alongside extensive ground offensives across all areas of the Gaza Strip. These offensives have almost completely destroyed the governorates of Rafah, Khan Younis, and North Gaza. Such policies have forced more than two million people into an area comprising no more than 12% of the Strip’s total land, under inhumane conditions lacking the bare minimum for survival.
Despite the massive destruction, ground and aerial attacks on Gaza City have persisted in recent months, destroying more than 65% of its buildings and landmarks. Today, around one million people live in the city’s western and northern areas—most of them original residents alongside IDPs from the north—amid the rubble of homes and infrastructure, and in temporary tents. They now face renewed threats of forced displacement to the south, which itself remains under constant Israeli attack.
Implementing the Israeli plan will not only lead to further civilian casualties amid extreme overcrowding but will also concentrate the entire population of the Gaza Strip into an area constituting no more than 5% of its 365 km² total area—producing the highest population density in the world. The areas designated for relocation are uninhabitable, subjected daily to Israeli bombardment from land, sea, and air, and suffering from systematic starvation policies.
The plan also threatens to halt operations at the remaining major medical facilities in Gaza City, particularly Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals, which have previously been forced to suspend services multiple times. This would bring about the total collapse of the healthcare system, leaving the wounded and sick to face certain death.
Israel’s bid for full control over Gaza City paves the way for the complete erasure of its cultural, historical, and archaeological landmarks, mirroring what has already been carried out in Rafah, Khan Younis, and North Gaza. In doing so, Israel is entrenching the largest forced demographic and cultural change in the Strip’s history—constituting an act of genocide and a systematic attempt to obliterate Palestinian presence and push survivors into permanent exile.
PCHR calls on the international community—particularly the permanent members of the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the International Court of Justice, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights—to take urgent and immediate action to halt Israel’s plan, prevent the repetition of another Nakba against the Palestinian people, protect Gaza City—the largest Palestinian urban centre, home to hundreds of historical and cultural landmarks—and compel Israel to end its ongoing genocide against the population of the Gaza Strip.
PCHR also warns Israel’s partners in the crime of genocide—whether through their unlimited military and political support to the occupying state or through their silence—and urges them to fulfil their legal obligations before it is too late. They must take concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians and prevent the completion of the ongoing crime of genocide.
