TEL AVIV, July 14, 2025 (WAFA) – A group of scholars and lecturers at Israeli law faculties specializing in international law and the laws of armed conflict expressed their unequivocal professional position and warned against the clear and explicit illegality inherent in the Israeli plan to concentrate the population of Gaza in a so-called “humanitarian city” to be established on the ruins of Rafah.
This plan was presented by the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, on July 7, 2025, and according to reports, is endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a broader plan to “encourage emigration” from Gaza.
In a letter dated July 10, sixteen legal professors and lecturers addressed the so-called ‘Defense’ Minister Israel Katz and Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, warning that the proposed plan to construct the camp atop the ruins of Rafah, which Israel has largely destroyed, represents a clear and explicit legal violation.
“If implemented, the plan would constitute a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and under certain conditions, could amount to the crime of genocide,” the letter stated.
According to Minister Katz, the plan is to initially concentrate approximately 600,000 Palestinians there, mainly from the Al-Mawasi area, and later the entire population of the Gaza Strip. He said, “The Palestinians will be admitted after screening and will not be allowed to leave.” He further stated that one of the plan’s objectives is to encourage emigration from the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli public broadcaster reported that the so-called city would be located between the Philadelphi Corridor and Morag, in southern Gaza. It is intended to house all Palestinians in Gaza, with mechanisms in place to promote what Israeli officials claim as “voluntary emigration” from the Strip.
The letter emphasized that this constitutes a war crime of forcible transfer and deportation. It stated that due to the systematic and widespread nature of the plan, it constitutes a crime against humanity in the form of deportation or forcible transfer.
In addition, the letter states that the plan constitutes a crime against humanity of severe deprivation of liberty, in violation of fundamental rules of international law, due to the prohibition on leaving the area. It also constitutes the crime against humanity of persecution, resulting from the grave deprivation of fundamental rights based on collective identity, in conjunction with the declared intent to encourage emigration.
The letter said that any directive to prepare or advance the establishment of a “humanitarian city” in Gaza constitutes a manifestly illegal order, which must not be followed.
The signatories concluded by urging all relevant authorities to publicly renounce this plan, disavow it, and ensure that it is not implemented.
T.R.
