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SvennoJ on 09 July 2025
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Israel signalling plans for occupation of Gaza ‘in the long term’: Ex-Israeli envoy

We’ve spoken to Alon Liel, former director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, about Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s controversial proposal for a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah. Critics say the plan for forced displacement amounts to a blueprint for war crimes.

Liel, a former Israeli ambassador, said that it was clear that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu was insisting on Israeli control of Gaza “in the long term”.

“This ‘humanitarian city’ is one of the spins, one of the ideas that will prolong the stay of Israel there,” he said. “He’s postponing the discussion of Gaza ‘the day after’, because he doesn’t want any Palestinian involvement in the future of Gaza.”

He said Netanyahu did not “care what the world is saying” in response to the proposal. “There is no world, there is only Washington, only Trump,” Liel added.


Israeli plan for city on Rafah ruins ‘aimed at ethnic cleansing’

“The diabolically named ‘humanitarian city'” proposed by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz to concentrate 600,000 Palestinians in southern Gaza’s Rafah “is a plan for ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” says analyst Adel Abdel Ghafar.

The director of the Foreign Policy programme at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs told Al Jazeera that it is not clear how serious this plan is since Jordan and Egypt refused to receive any Palestinians forced out of Gaza since they believe Israel will never allow them back in the enclave.

“If it is serious, it is a blueprint for ethnic cleansing,” he said.


British minister ‘appalled’ by Katz’s plan for ‘humanitarian city’ in Rafah

The UK’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, has slammed an Israeli proposal for a “humanitarian city” to be established in the ruins of Rafah.

Falconer posted on X that he was “appalled by Israeli Defence Minister Katz’s proposal to move Gaza’s population to Rafah”. “Palestinian territory must not be reduced. Civilians must be able to return to their communities,” he wrote.