Israeli plan to forcibly relocate Gazans blasted as 'crime against humanity'

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00:00Israel calls it a humanitarian city, critics say it is a blueprint for crimes against humanity.

00:07On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a plan to move civilians in

00:11Gaza to Rafa from coastal areas.

00:14Israel's Defense Minister Katz revealed today in a briefing to journalists that Israel is

00:20preparing to establish a new humanitarian city in the area of the former city of Rafa.

00:27During the first stage at least, the aim is to start reducing the number of people who

00:31are in the Mawazi.

00:33A Mawazi on the coast west of Rafa has been designated a safe zone by the Israeli military

00:39since December 2023, even though it has continued to bomb the zone on several occasions, most

00:45notably in May last year, when an airstrike on the Tellal Sultan displacement camp killed

00:51around 50 people.

00:52Israel said it would not run the humanitarian city, nor would it provide aid, though it

00:57was seeking partners to do so.

01:00One of Israel's main human rights lawyers speaking to the Guardian denounced the plan, saying it

01:04was humanitarian only in name.

01:08Katz laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity.

01:11It's nothing less than that.

01:13It's all about population transferred to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation

01:17for deportation outside the Strip.

01:20While the government still calls the deportation voluntary, people in Gaza are under so many

01:25coercive measures that no departure from the Strip can be seen in legal terms as consensual.

01:32Israel has faced stinging criticism for its administering of aid distribution in Gaza in

01:36recent months, with the UN saying hundreds of Palestinians were shot dead while queuing for

01:42aid handed out by the self-styled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

01:46The announcement is also reflective of mixed messages emanating from Israeli authorities.

01:51Earlier on Monday, the Army Chief of Staff said moving the Palestinian population and concentrating

01:56it within Gaza are not among the military operations objectives.

02:00Israel and the United States were working on finding countries willing to take in displaced Gazans.

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