‘Humanitarian area’ in Gaza designed to pressure civilians to leave Strip

Israel has declared the establishment of a “humanitarian area” in southern Gaza into which it plans to situate all of the Strip’s population. But the IDF’s motive appears to be anything but humanitarian – lending succour to impoverished, war-weary and hungry Palestinian civilians.

Indeed, both supporters and critics of this fateful step see it as intended to help “voluntarily” remove Gazans to third countries as backed by Donald Trump.

For Benjamin Netanyahu, this would be the “total victory” he has been trying to sell, a climax of two years of war that began with Hamas’ brutal attacks on October 7, 2023. Netanyahu is so wedded to ethnic cleansing that in recent days he has chastised Egypt for refusing to allow a future influx of Palestinian civilians who would “voluntarily” leave Gaza.

Within this context, Israel has a clear interest in making the “humanitarian area” a de facto disaster area so that in their desperation, the Gazans will “voluntarily” relocate from it to any country Israel can persuade to take them.

While the IDF says the area is to enable the Gazans to escape the dangers of its burgeoning Gaza City invasion, it would be a mistake to count on the army’s good intentions, especially given the IDF’s record of starvation and many other forms of harm to them, including systematically destroying their homes so they have nowhere to return to.

An earlier “humanitarian area” declared by the IDF at the al-Muwasi site proved to be far from safe, with Haaretz estimating that about a thousand Palestinians were killed as the IDF mounted airstrikes there.