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5h ago

Israel Advances Rafah 'Humanitarian City' Plan as U.S. and GHF Deny Transit Camp Proposal

Israel’s defense minister ordered the IDF to prepare a sealed camp for Gaza’s population, sparking humanitarian, legal alarm with military leadership questioning its objectives.

Palestinians collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
Palestinians inspect the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, in Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
People make their way past the rubble of houses in Rafah on January 20, 2025.
A Palestinian woman carries a container of water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Overview

  • The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and senior U.S. officials denied authoring or considering any multibillion-dollar proposal to build large-scale “Humanitarian Transit Areas” in Gaza.
  • Reuters corrected its initial July 7 report to remove attribution of the transit camp plan to GHF after failing to independently verify the document’s origin.
  • Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to draft plans for a closed “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, initially hosting 600,000 residents and ultimately the entire population with no exit allowed.
  • The office of IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said that concentrating or displacing Palestinians in one part of Gaza is not among the military’s objectives, directly contradicting Katz’s order.
  • Legal and humanitarian experts warn that any forced or coerced relocation of Gaza’s population under bombardment risks violating international law and could amount to crimes against humanity.