The plan follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a new military operation to take control of Gaza City, the largest urban center in the region.

Netanyahu said the military has been authorized to dismantle the last two Hamas strongholds: Gaza City in the north and al-Mawasi in the south.

Home
World
Israel Prepares Forced Displacement of Palestinians to Southern Gaza
Reporter

Adinda Jasmine

August 17, 2025 | 06:00 pm

Displaced Palestinian children crowd to get meals from volunteers in Al-Mawasi, the southern Gaza Strip, on November 29, 2024. Doc. Shutterstock
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Israel has announced preparations to forcibly relocate Palestinian residents to the southern part of Gaza City starting Sunday, August 17, 2025.

The plan follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a new military operation to take control of Gaza City, the largest urban center in the region.

Netanyahu said the military has been authorized to dismantle the last two Hamas strongholds: Gaza City in the north and al-Mawasi in the south.

According to Al Jazeera, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated on Saturday, August 16, that the displaced residents will be provided with tents and supplies. He said the aid will be delivered through the Karem Abu Salem or Kerem Shalom crossing by the United Nations and international aid groups.

The UN has not commented on the plan or its role in it, but previously warned that the evacuation could worsen the already dire conditions faced by thousands of families in Gaza City.

The Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas, condemned Israel’s move, calling it part of a brutal campaign to seize Gaza City and a blatant violation of international law.

“Forcing people to flee amidst starvation, massacres, and displacement is an ongoing crime against humanity. Criminal behaviour in Gaza is inseparable from the daily crimes committed by the occupation in the occupied West Bank,” the group said.

Ismail Thawabteh, director of Gaza’s government media office, told Anadolu that Israel’s promise of tents for civilians was “a blatant attempt to whitewash the crime of mass forced displacement it has been committing since the start of the genocide in Gaza.”

He warned that the designated area for tents could become “a new blood trap,” similar to what happened in al-Mawasi, Rafah, and Khan Younis, where more than 1.5 million people were driven over the past months.

On Wednesday, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir approved what he called the “central idea” of Israel’s reoccupation plan, which includes an attack on the Zeitoun district in southern Gaza City where the army’s 99th Division has been deployed.

The Israeli Security Cabinet had already endorsed Netanyahu’s plan to fully reoccupy Gaza, sparking international condemnation and domestic protests that warned it amounted to a “death sentence” for Israeli hostages.

The operation is set to begin with the takeover of Gaza City and the evacuation of nearly one million residents to the south, followed by a siege and raids on several neighborhoods. A second phase will target refugee camps in central Gaza, many of which have already been reduced to rubble.

Those killed on Tuesday included 19 aid seekers, as the European Union and 26 countries, including Canada, France and the United Kingdom, condemned the “unimaginable levels” of suffering in Gaza and called for urgent action to halt and reverse the unfolding famine in the war-torn territory.

Survivors of the latest attacks on aid seekers, which took place near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, described horrific scenes.

“There was gunfire all around; we didn’t know what was happening. People were dying in front of us, bullets flying between our legs, and we couldn’t do anything,” said a man who gave his name as Sayyid.

Another survivor, Mohammed Abu Nahl, described crawling on his stomach, “with bullets flying all around”, as the wounded and dead lay all around him.

“The dead were lying beneath us, and we were pulling them out,” he said. “I came here just to feed my children. I have no money to buy food. If I had food and water, I wouldn’t come here. What should I do? Steal? Loot?

The killings at Zikim take the death toll of aid seekers to more than 1,838 since late May, when the notorious United States-backed GHF began its operations in the Gaza Strip.

The Nasser Medical Complex, meanwhile, announced the deaths of six-year-old Jamal Fadi al-Najjar and 30-year-old Wissam Abu Mohsen from malnutrition.

The worsening crisis has prompted strong denunciation from dozens of Western nations.

As the number of Israeli-imposed hunger-related deaths continues to rise, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday urged Israel to allow it to stock medical supplies in Gaza before the Israeli military proceeds with its plan to seize Gaza City, a move that has also drawn international condemnation.

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza City has intensified for three consecutive days. The military is using “all types of weapons… bombs, drones, and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction to civilian homes”.

Rescue operations have also come under fire. The Civil Defence said one of its members, Abdul Rahman Maher Abu Latifa, was killed in an Israeli strike on his tent in al-Mawasi. Both his parents were also killed. The service said 137 of its members have been killed since the war began.

Another paramedic, Noah al-Shagnoubi, described being attacked while trying to help wounded people in Gaza City.Israel is also blocking the entry of more than 430 food items into Gaza, despite allowing some aid trucks through last month under international pressure, Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Tuesday.

In a statement, it said the banned items include “frozen meat of all kinds, frozen fish, cheese, dairy products, frozen vegetables, and fruits”, along with “hundreds of other items needed by the starving and sick”.

This comes a day after Israel targeted and killed a team of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza City, an attack that has sparked protests in countries across the world.

Seven people were killed in the attack on the tent located outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital late on Sunday evening. They include Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.

Shortly before being killed, al-Sharif, a well-known 28-year-old Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who had reportedly extensively from northern Gaza, wrote on X that Israel had launched intense, concentrated bombardment – also known as “fire belts” – on the eastern and southern parts of Gaza City.

In a final message, written on April 6, to be published in the event of his death, al-Sharif said he “lived the pain in all its details” and “tasted grief and loss repeatedly”.

“Despite that, I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, and those who suffocated our very breaths,” he said.

The reporter also expressed sorrow for having had to leave his wife, Bayan, behind, and for not seeing his son, Salah, and daughter, Sham, grow up.

In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network condemned the killings as “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom”.

“This attack comes amid the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has seen the relentless slaughter of civilians, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire communities,” the network said.

“The order to assassinate Anas Al Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza.”

Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud, who was just one block away when the strike hit, said reporting on al-Sharif’s death was the hardest thing he has had to do in the past 22 months of war.

In a statement confirming the deliberate killing of al-Sharif, Israel’s military accused the journalist of heading a Hamas cell and “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops”. It also alleged that it had documents providing “unequivocal proof” of his involvement with the Palestinian group.

Muhammed Shehada, an analyst at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said there was “zero evidence” that al-Sharif took part in any hostilities.

Since Israel launched its war on the enclave in October 2023, it has routinely accused Palestinian journalists in Gaza of being Hamas members as part of what rights groups say is an effort to discredit their reporting of Israeli abuses.

The Israeli military has killed more than 200 reporters and media workers since its bombardment began, including several Al Jazeera journalists and their relatives.

Al-Obeid, 41, was killed on Wednesday when Israeli forces attacked people waiting near an aid distribution centre in southern Gaza, the Palestinian Football Association said.

He was nicknamed the “Pele of Palestinian football” – after the Brazilian professional footballer widely regarded as one of the best football players of all time.

During his long career, the Gaza player scored more than 100 goals, making him one of the brightest stars of Palestinian football.

With al-Obeid’s death, the number of athletes and their family members killed in the Strip since the start of Israel’s war has risen to 662.

The number of football-related deaths in Gaza now stands at 321, including players, coaches, administrators, referees and club board members.

At the international level, al-Obeid played 24 international matches with Al-Fida’i, scoring two goals, the most famous of which was a scissor kick goal against the Yemeni national team during the 2010 West Asian Football Federation Championship.

The football star leaves behind a wife and five children.

“Death by bombardments. Death by malnutrition and starvation. Death by lack of aid and vital services,” the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a post on X on Tuesday.

“In Gaza, an average of 28 children a day – the size of a classroom – have been killed.”

The agency stressed that children in Gaza are in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and protection, adding: “More than anything, they need a ceasefire, NOW.”

Israel has killed more than 18,000 children – one child every hour – since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza. At least 60,933 Palestinians have been killed and 150,027 others wounded since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel.

Israel’s war on Gaza is also leaving its psychological scars on children.

The hair and skin of Lana, a 10-year-old displaced child, turned white almost overnight after a bombing near her shelter triggered what doctors call trauma-induced depigmentation. Lana has become withdrawn, often only talking to her doll, as other children bully her for her appearance.

“Gaza is a graveyard for children today and for their dreams,” Ahmad Alhendawi, regional director of the NGO Save the Children, told Al Jazeera. “This is an inescapable living nightmare for every child in Gaza … This is a generation that is growing up thinking that the world has abandoned them, that the world has turned its back on them.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters braved heavy winds and rain on Sunday to march across the bridge, chanting “Ceasefire Now” and “Free Palestine”. Some of those attending the march, which the organisers dubbed the “March for Humanity”, carried pots and pans as symbols of the forced starvation wracking Gaza.

The protest came less than a week after a joint statement by Australia and more than a dozen other nations expressed the “willingness or the positive consideration … to recognise the state of Palestine as an essential step towards the two-State solution”.

Australia has called for an end to the war in Gaza, but has so far stopped short of a decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

Police said that up to 90,000 people had attended the protest while the organiser, Palestine Action Group Sydney, said in a Facebook post that as many as 300,000 people may have marched.

Mehreen Faruqi, the New South Wales senator for the left-wing Greens party, addressed the crowd gathered at central Sydney’s Lang Park, calling for the “harshest sanctions on Israel”, accusing its forces of “massacring” Palestinians.

Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, a book on the Israeli arms and surveillance industry, who spoke at the rally, told Al Jazeera that protesters are “outraged” not just by what Israel is doing in Gaza, but also by the Australian government’s “complicity”.

“A lot of Australians are aware of this,” he said. “We are deeply complicit, and people are angry that their government is doing little more than talk at this point.”

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday. Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s post comes a day after Carney announced that Canada is planning to recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September if certain conditions are met, following recent announcements by France and the UK.

Canada and the US are working on negotiating a trade deal by August 1, the date Trump is threatening to impose a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Carney said recognising Palestinian statehood was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a longstanding Canadian goal that was “being eroded before our eyes”.

Carney added that Abbas would have to “hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarise the Palestinian state”, if Canada were to go ahead with recognition of this state.

The US has rejected moves to recognise a Palestinian state, saying the policy rewards Hamas. The Trump administration has been uncompromising in its support for Israel, despite accusations by UN experts and rights groups that the US ally is committing a genocide against Palestinians.

Trump himself has said that starvation was clearly taking place in Gaza, despite Israeli denials. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday for ceasefire and aid talks.

With Wednesday’s announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state during the same UN meeting.

The Israeli embassy in Ottawa said “recognising a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimises the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on October 7, 2023”.

Carney stressed that Canada has been an unwavering member of the group of nations that hoped a two-state solution “would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority”.

“I have always said that we will recognize a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in press briefing after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“I can confirm the UK will recognize the State of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September, unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term sustainable peace reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Starmer’s decision “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism.”

“A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW. Appeasement toward jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen,” Netanyahu said according to a post on X by his office on Tuesday.

Trump echoed some of Israel’s criticism and said he sees the UK’s decision as “rewarding Hamas,” adding that the US has no plans to follow suit. “Essentially, (Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are) saying the same thing, and that’s okay, but you know, doesn’t mean I have to agree,” Trump said.

France commended Starmer’s announcement on Tuesday, with the country’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot saying the UK “joins today in the momentum created by France for the recognition of the State of Palestine.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry also lauded the move, as did Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh, who said it demonstrates a “commitment to international law and legitimacy.”

Jordan expressed its “appreciation” for Starmer’s decision and said it was a “a step in the right direction toward materializing the two-state solution,” according to the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney welcomed the “intent” behind the decision but said that Palestinian statehood “must not be conditional and must be backed by sanctions against Israel if the violence continues.”

A UN-backed food security agency said on Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is currently taking place in the Gaza Strip, with more than 20,000 children admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July.

As these countries deploy words months after the United Nations and other groups warned of an oncoming famine, there has been little action on other fronts.

Some of these countries have recognised the Palestinian state while France last week angered Israeli officials by announcing it would do the same in September.

Still, many critics have pointed out that as countries make these statements, many of them continue to benefit from trade with Israel and have not imposed sanctions or taken any other action that could push Israel to end its genocidal war on Gaza.

Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all have more than $1bn in imports, exports or both with Israel, according to 2023 figures from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

Among the top items being traded are cars and other motor vehicles, integrated circuits, vaccines and perfumes.

About $3.58bn in integrated circuits is the largest individual product going to Ireland, making up the overwhelming majority of Ireland’s imports from Israel.

Meanwhile, Italy exports to Israel more than any other country that signed the statement. Its $3.49bn of exports included $116m in cars in 2023.

Of those countries that issued the statement, Ireland and Spain recognised Palestine in 2024 and have spoken strongly against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Still, that hasn’t stopped them from continuing trade with Israel.

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

All of them are still trading with Israel.

France, Germany and the UK called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and “unconditional release of all hostages” after they held an emergency call to discuss the war and the hunger crisis created by Israel’s siege and aid blockade on the enclave.

In a joint letter, more than 30 former UK ambassadors and 20 former senior British diplomats at the UN said that the “deadly status quo” in Gaza, amid Israel’s two-year war on the enclave, could be broken by the recognition of Palestine.

“The risks of inaction have profound, historic and catastrophic implications,” the letter said, adding that Israel “cannot be secure from threats in the future if the question of Palestine is not taken forward to a political settlement”.

“In the face of the current horror and impunity, words are not enough … A partial suspension of arms sales, delays on trade talks and limited sanctions are far from the full extent of the pressure the UK can bring to bear on Israel,” the letter added.

The signatories of the joint statement included ex-UK ambassadors to Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria and Turkey.

Last month, France was preparing to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state at a major UN conference on the two-state solution beginning on 17 June in New York, which it was set to co-host with Saudi Arabia.

And the US privately warned the two European countries against unilaterally recognising Palestine, sources in the British Foreign Office with knowledge of the matter told MEE.

Shortly afterwards, both countries reportedly decided against recognising Palestine.

The letter from the diplomats came as Archbishop of York, Steve Cottrell, the de facto leader of the Church of England, said Israel’s “war of aggression” was a “grave sin”.

Earlier this week, nearly 60 British MPs and peers called for a full embargo on arms exports to Israel and for the government to be more transparent about the licences it grants for military exports.