Israel’s plan to push Palestinians into Rafah part of ‘second Nakba’
British Israeli analyst Daniel Levy says he believes the Israeli proposal to drive Palestinians in Gaza to a “humanitarian city” amid the ruins of Rafah is part of an Israeli plan for a “second Nakba”, more comprehensive than the original ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
“We are witnessing, it seems, a second Nakba,” Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, told Al Jazeera, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians during the 1948 establishment of Israel.
“The idea of displacing Palestinians, removing them from the geographical expanse is not a new one,” he said.
“The intention is for this to be more comprehensive than the original ethnic cleansing … and the attempts subsequently to displace Palestinians.”
Israeli plans for ethnic cleansing of Gaza revealed ‘in dribs and drabs’
British-Israeli analyst Daniel Levy says Israel’s vision for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, which he says it currently appears to be pursuing, has been revealed “in dribs and drabs” during the war.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Levy, the president of the US/Middle East Project, said that in December 2023, plans had circulated in the Israeli prime minister’s office “for something called the Gaza Rehabilitation Authority, which was designed to … ‘rebuild Gaza from nothing’”.
“We know of plans that circulated in Israeli government ministries to push Palestinians into the Sinai,” he said. “We then know that Israeli ministers openly talked about ethnic cleansing, and pushed Palestinians from as much of Gaza as possible, trying to push them into southern areas.”
In February, Israel had created “a Directorate for the Voluntary Transition of Gaza Residents”, Levy said, adding that “there’s nothing voluntary about pushing people out when you’ve destroyed all the homes”.
He said the latest stages had seen GHF aid distribution hubs set up that have become “slaughter zones”, and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s proposal for Palestinians to receive aid in a “humanitarian city” established in the ruins of Rafah.
Satellite images show apparent Israeli preparations for ‘concentration camp’ in Rafah
Al Jazeera has seen satellite images that reveal Israeli plans to create a concentration camp in southern Gaza – an alarming scheme to carry forward Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The images show large tracts of land being cleared of buildings, seemingly in preparation for the forced transfer of Palestinians.
Israel’s defence minister has said that eventually the entire population of Gaza will be moved there – that’s more than two million people.
Relocating Palestinians to Rafah appears to have been Israel’s plan from ‘day one’
Israel’s proposal to relocate Palestinians in a so-called “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza is merely the latest disclosure about a plan that appears to have been in place since “day one” of the war, says an analyst.
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that it appeared that “the plan has been there from the beginning”.
“Now, we are just witnessing the operational aspects of it being implemented on the ground,” he said.
He said it was unclear whether Israel’s intention was to concentrate Gaza’s estimated two million people in the ruins of southern Gaza, or to use the site as a staging point for mass displacement of Palestinians beyond Gaza’s borders.
“It could be either,” he said. “Everything they say has to be taken seriously, because this government has crossed all the lines.”
