Overview

• Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to plan a secured encampment on Rafah’s ruins to relocate Gaza’s displaced civilians.
• The proposed zone would be enclosed by fencing, accommodate 600,000 residents at first and scale up to 2.2 million, with incoming Palestinians screened for militants and barred from re-entry.
• Military leaders, including IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, have warned the plan is logistically impractical, costly—at an estimated 15 billion shekels—and could take a year to complete.
• Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, UNRWA and leading Israeli legal experts have described the scheme as effectively creating a concentration camp and violating international law.
• Despite this opposition, Israeli authorities have intensified demolitions in Rafah and remain committed to the project, a stance that Hamas says undermines ongoing ceasefire talks.