Former prime minister Ehud Olmert labeled Israel’s “humanitarian city” plan in Gaza a “concentration camp” on Sunday, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also criticized it.
Last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Israel’s intention to establish a “humanitarian city” south of the Morag Corridor on Rafah’s ruins to separate Gaza’s population from Hamas. This vast camp, made of mostly tents, is designed to house up to half a million people.
The plan faces sharp criticism within Israel’s security establishment for resembling the start of an Israeli military administration in the Strip, while humanitarian organizations view it as forced population displacement.
Katz said that Palestinians entering the “city”—tents built on Rafah’s ruins in southern Gaza—would be unable to leave except to other countries. The camp would initially accommodate the 600,000 Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, eventually housing all of Gaza’s two million residents.
Ynetnews reported the plan’s cost at NIS 10 to 15 billion ($2.7 to $4 billion). “It is a concentration camp, I am sorry,” Olmert said. “If they [Palestinians] will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city’, then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing. It hasn’t yet happened.”
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
He called it an inevitable interpretation of creating a camp for hundreds of thousands, arguing that building a camp to “clear” over half of Gaza clearly aims to expel, push out and discard Palestinians. “There is no other understanding that I have, at least,” he added.
Merz also condemned the initiative. “What’s happening in Gaza now is unacceptable,” he told Germany’s public broadcaster ARD, reiterating calls for increased humanitarian aid.
“I didn’t like what Israel’s government has done in Gaza recently and I’ve said so.” Merz conveyed his criticism to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in phone calls, expressing hope that Europe and the United States could advance a two-state solution. “Palestinians have a right to a state where they can live,” he said.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry warned against the “humanitarian city” in Rafah, saying, “This forced displacement has nothing to do with humanitarian values and has drawn widespread criticism from the international community and Israeli circles. It aims to confine hundreds of thousands of citizens in inhumane conditions, with the United States complicit in this crime.”