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.

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Israel Prepares Forced Displacement of Palestinians to Southern Gaza
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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.

Among the dead was journalist Ismail Abu Hatab, as well as women and children who had gathered at the cafe.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said more than 220 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.

The Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the aid site in Khan Younis. More than 200 people were reportedly injured.

Almost all the casualties in Gaza in recent days have been linked to the delivery of aid rather than Israeli strikes on Hamas targets.

Witnesses say that Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby.

The response from the IDF has usually been to say that its troops warned people not to approach them – and then fired warning shots when what the IDF calls \"suspects\" acted in a manner deemed to pose a threat. The Israeli army has provided little or no detail beyond this.

Israel does not allow international news organisations including the BBC into Gaza, making verifying what is happening there difficult.

The GHF has also responded to the shootings by saying that they should not be mentioned in connection to their operations, as the incidents are happening away from their sites.

But there is no doubt that thousands of Palestinians would not be gathered in desperate search for limited supplies of food in those areas if it were not for the way that the new distribution system has been set up.

The head of Unrwa – the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – Philippe Lazzarini has said that in Gaza \'tragedies go on unabated while attention shifts elsewhere\'.

Yet there seems to be no plan from Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation or the international community to find a way to prevent the near daily killing of Palestinians, as they take their lives in their hands to seek a meagre supply of food.

It has been 20 months since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 55,297 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory\'s health ministry.

In one particularly harrowing account, a Palestinian resident described the horror of seeing an entire family killed in an instant. “All of them in pieces, and our house collapsed on us,” the survivor recounted. Their home, located directly next to the targeted residence, was severely damaged in the explosion. Rescue workers are still pulling bodies from beneath the debris, desperately searching for survivors in what has been described as the most intense assault since January 19th.

The latest wave of bombings comes after Israel seemingly unilaterally ended a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that had been in place since January. Hamas has now called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene and bring an end to the attacks, urging international pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign.

The Israeli military, however, insists that the renewed airstrikes are necessary, claiming they are operating under the direct orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli officials have stated that the intensification of military action is in response to stalled negotiations over the release of Israeli captives and Hamas’s refusal to accept proposed agreements.

The White House has confirmed that Israel consulted the Trump administration prior to launching the strikes, signaling Washington’s continued involvement in the conflict. Officials have warned that there will be consequences, raising the specter of an all-out return to full-scale war.

As the conflict rages on, the Palestinian death toll has climbed beyond 60,000, marking yet another grim milestone in a war that has spanned 17 months with no clear end in sight. The international community remains divided on how to respond, but for those on the ground in Gaza, survival is the only priority as they brace for further attacks in the days to come.

News source- Al Jazeera