Israel destroyed 400 [Palestinian] homes in Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, over the past six days through aerial bombardment and the use of booby-trapped robots...

Smoke rises and Palestinians flee the site after Israeli army conduct attacks over al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on August 06, 2025. [Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency]

August 16, 2025

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday said that Israeli forces have destroyed some 400 homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, over the past six days through aerial bombardment and the use of booby-trapped robots, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the rights group said Israeli forces have been “leveling Zeitoun to the ground” since Aug. 11 as part of a large-scale military assault aimed at imposing full control over Gaza City and forcibly displacing its residents.

The monitor noted that “more than 90,000 Palestinians have fled the neighborhood under intense shelling.”

It added that Israeli forces have “deployed quadcopter drones to encircle residential blocks and force residents to evacuate at gunpoint, while advancing with ground units under heavy fire cover.”

The group stressed that the destruction of “nearly half of the homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood was not justified by any military necessity, as no armed clashes had been reported in the area recently.”

It said the “systematic use of robotic explosives and aerial strikes after residents were evacuated indicated the aim of the operation is not to achieve a legitimate military objective but rather the destruction of civilian life and forced displacement.”

The rights group said that the assault on Zeitoun, Gaza City’s largest neighborhood, falls within a “broader Israeli policy of genocide aimed at erasing Palestinian urban centers through mass destruction of homes, infrastructure, and essential services.”

READ: Nearly 61,900 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 2023, as Israeli attacks persist

It urged the international community, including the UN and legal institutions, to “act urgently to stop the attacks, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable.”

The group also called for the enforcement of International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The latest Israeli military campaign began on Aug. 11, following a government-approved plan to gradually reoccupy Gaza, starting with Gaza City.

Witnesses reported widespread home demolitions using robotic devices, artillery fire, indiscriminate shooting, and forced displacement.

Israel has killed nearly 61,900 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Middle East Monitor

@MiddleEastMnt

 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250816-israel-destroyed-400-homes-in-gazas-zeitoun-neighborhood-euro-med-monitor/ 

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Israel plans to confine Gaza residents in a closed concentration camp atop Rafah ruins

Displaced Palestinians walk through a makeshift tent camp in Rafah, Gaza, Friday, 10 May 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

  09 Jul 2025 Israel-Palestinian Territory  

Palestinian Territory – The Israeli plan, announced by Defence Minister Israel Katz, to transfer the entire population of the Gaza Strip to a so-called “humanitarian zone” over the ruins of part of Rafah marks a dangerous escalation in the ongoing genocide. It reflects a deliberate effort to depopulate Gaza and impose a new demographic reality that advances a colonial project to erase the Palestinian presence.

The proposed plan aims, in its initial phase, to gather hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians inside the Gaza Strip as a prelude to confining them in a “humanitarian zone” built on the ruins of a destroyed city lacking even the most basic necessities of life. The zone will be placed under strict security control, with severe restrictions on movement, including a ban on exiting. This effectively constitutes the establishment of a closed mass concentration camp, where the population will be forcibly held outside any legitimate legal framework.

The danger of this plan is compounded by Defence Minister Katz’s endorsement of what he termed the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians, clearly indicating Israel’s adoption of a policy of external displacement targeting the population of the Gaza Strip. This confirms that the concentration of people in the south is not a humanitarian measure but a transitional phase within a systematic plan to depopulate Gaza. It is a direct continuation of the policies of ethnic cleansing pursued by Israel since the Nakba of 1948, aimed at erasing the Palestinian presence and uprooting them from their land permanently.

   The use of misleading terms such as “humanitarian zone” in the context of ongoing crimes, including bombing, starvation, and forced displacement, is a blatant attempt to conceal a full-fledged crime and mislead the international community   

The Israeli plan constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the absolute prohibition on the forced transfer and mass detention of protected populations under the Fourth Geneva Convention. It falls within the scope of forced displacement, persecution, and apartheid, which are patterns of policies and practices that individually amount to crimes against humanity under international law.

The most dangerous aspect of this plan is the concentration of nearly two million Palestinians in a devastated, sealed-off area deprived of basic living conditions and subject to severe movement restrictions. This constitutes an organised act of genocide, involving the deliberate imposition of life-threatening conditions aimed at the gradual destruction of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip through starvation, humiliation, mass detention, and forced subjugation.

Katz’s statements about exploiting the temporary ceasefire, currently under negotiation, clearly indicate that the ceasefire is not intended to halt the ongoing genocide but to give the Israeli army time and the necessary ground conditions to establish mass concentration camps. These camps are meant to receive hundreds of thousands of civilians who will later be forced to flee under the pressure of escalating killings, starvation, and forced displacement.

According to the Israeli minister, the plan involves transferring 600,000 Palestinians after subjecting them to so-called “security checks,” imposing severe restrictions on their movement and preventing them from leaving the area. This constitutes a flagrant violation of core principles of international law, including the prohibition of forced transfer, the right to freedom of movement and return, and protection from arbitrary detention and racial discrimination. It also breaches the peremptory norm prohibiting genocide, which may not be violated under any circumstances and imposes immediate legal obligations on all states to prevent the crime, stop its commission, and hold perpetrators accountable.

These official statements, which reflect a deliberate and declared policy, confirm that Israel is pursuing a systematic plan of forced displacement in the Gaza Strip through demographic engineering aimed at erasing the Palestinian presence by concentrating civilians in closed and besieged areas resembling mass concentration camps and forcibly imposed ghettos.

The contradiction between Defence Minister Israel Katz’s announcement of a plan to forcibly transfer and confine Gaza residents and the Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir’s statement two days earlier that transferring the population is not a military objective exposes a deliberate effort to mislead public opinion and the international community.

While the Israeli army seeks to deny such intentions, Katz outlined a detailed plan that fully aligns with the facts on the ground, including mass killings, forced evacuation orders, the targeting of shelters, and the confinement of hundreds of thousands of people in besieged areas.

Field evidence clearly shows that this is the execution of a political plan, not the result of emergency military operations. Katz’s statements, rather than the army’s denials, reflect the true intent and official policy, serving as conclusive evidence of mass forced displacement carried out under military cover.

The use of misleading terms such as “humanitarian zone” in the context of ongoing crimes, including bombing, starvation, and forced displacement, is a blatant attempt to conceal a full-fledged crime and mislead the international community. The plan has no genuine humanitarian dimension; it serves only as a cover for a clear strategic objective to forcibly alter the demographic composition of the Gaza Strip and gradually depopulate it.

The aid distribution centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, located within the so-called “humanitarian zone,” have effectively become death traps, with 758 Palestinians killed and over 5,000 injured since the centres opened in late May. This offers a stark warning of what awaits hundreds of thousands of civilians if forcibly transferred to that zone under a false humanitarian pretext that conceals a systematic genocide.... READ MORE  https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6778

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