Israel to push Gaza's entire population south, laying path to resettlement

Sources say strategy amounts to a new Nakba

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Israel is planning to push the entire population of Gaza to a "safe zone" in the south of the enclave where it will distribute so little humanitarian aid that many Palestinians might opt to leave the territory, sources said.

They told The National on Monday that of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, Israel expects 500,000 to 900,000 Palestinians to remain in the so-called safe zone after the rest of the population has left the enclave.

The zone will be created over an area of between 50 and 70 square kilometres near Egypt's border with Gaza, they said.

Israel expects Palestinians from across the enclave to rush to the safe zone to escape hunger and intensifying military operations, the sources said.

"It will be very similar to a new Nakba," said one source, using the Arabic word for calamity or disaster to describe the eviction of up to 700,000 Palestinians from their homes around the time of Israel's creation in 1948.

"There will be tents and rudimentary health clinics and schools, and everything will be closely monitored by the Israeli military. Relief supplies will be minimal, the idea being that the Palestinians will find life so tough there, that many of them will want to leave."

The sources spoke to The National only hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet voted to intensify the offensive against Hamas in Gaza to the point of seizing the entire enclave, according to Israeli officials.

An Israeli official later said the newly approved Gaza offensive plan would move the strip's civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into the hands of Hamas.

The UN on Sunday rejected what it described as a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it said were Israeli hubs. On Monday, Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on X that Israel was demanding the UN and non-governmental organisations shut down their aid distribution system in Gaza.

"They want to manipulate and militarise all aid to civilians, forcing us to deliver supplies through hubs designed by the Israeli military, once the government agrees to reopen crossings. NRC will stand by our humanitarian principles and will, with all our peers, refuse to take part in this new scheme."

News of the stepped up Israeli offensive and the plan to move Palestinians to the south of Gaza broke little more than a week before US President Donald Trump's milestone visit to the Middle East, where he will stop in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.

Israel has embraced proposals first made by Mr Trump in January to resettle Gaza's Palestinians, mainly in Egypt and Jordan, before effecting a US takeover of the territory on a corner of the eastern Mediterranean and turning it into a glitzy beach resort.

Cairo and Amman, along with many nations around the world and UN agencies, denounced the proposals, with some labelling the plan as ethnic cleansing. Egypt has said it will not be part of a new injustice to the Palestinians, arguing that taking in Gaza's residents would undermine its national security.

Gaza has received no relief supplies of any kind since March, when a US-backed ceasefire broke down two months after it took hold. Israel resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18, two weeks after it enforced a total blockade of Gaza.

To date, more than 52,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October 2023, authorities in the enclave said. Most built-up areas have been reduced to rubble and the majority of residents have been displaced at least once.

The war was triggered by a surprise attack on southern Israeli communities by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people. The attackers also took about 250 others hostage, of whom 59, including 24 believed to be still alive, remain captive in Gaza.

Mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have since March been trying without success to negotiate a new truce but neither Israel nor Hamas have shown any willingness to soften their conditions.

A report by Israel's public broadcaster Kan, citing official sources, said the new offensive strategy was gradual and would take months, with forces focusing first on one area of the enclave.

Such a timeline could leave the door open for a ceasefire and hostage release deal talks before Mr Trump's visit, Israeli security cabinet minister Zeev Elkin said.

"There is still a window of opportunity until President Trump concludes his visit to the Middle East, if Hamas understands we are serious," Mr Elkin told Kan on Monday.

He added that rather than launching raids in specific areas and then leaving them as the military has done so far, Israeli forces will now hold the territories they seize, until Hamas is defeated, or agrees to disarm and leave Gaza.