News- Middle East: Israel has intensified demolitions in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah as reports emerge of a scheme to confine the entire Palestinian population of the territory to a camp built atop the town’s ruins.

An investigation by Al Jazeera has found that as of July 4, 2025, the number of demolished buildings in Rafah has risen to about 28,600, up from 15,800 on April 4, 2025, according to data from the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT).

This means roughly 12,800 buildings were destroyed in just three months, indicating a sharp acceleration in the city’s obliteration.

Once home to an estimated 275,000 people, Rafah now lies largely in ruins.

The escalation coincides with Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz’s announcement of plans to create a camp, which he has called a “humanitarian city,” on the rubble of Rafah.

Katz said last week that he had instructed the military to begin preparations. Under the plan, Palestinians would undergo “security screening” before entering the camp and would not be permitted to leave.

The Israeli military would control the perimeter, and an initial 600,000 Palestinians—mostly those currently displaced in the al-Mawasi area—would be moved there, Katz said.

Eventually, according to him, the entire population of Gaza—more than 2 million people—would be transferred to the camp as part of what he openly calls “the emigration plan, which will happen.”

Legal experts and international officials have warned that the plan could constitute a crime against humanity.

Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers, said Katz has "laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity."

“It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the Strip.”

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), warned that the plan would amount to mass forced displacement.

“This would de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations,” he said.

Katz’s scheme, Lazzarini said, would “deprive Palestinians of any prospects of a better future in their homeland.”

Details of similar proposals have surfaced before. Reuters reported Monday that plans for camps—labeled “Humanitarian Transit Areas”—had been previously shared with the administration of US President Donald Trump and discussed at the White House.

According to documents seen by Reuters, the “humanitarian city” was envisioned as a space where Gaza residents would “temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”

Trump raised outrage across the world by suggesting in February that the US could "take over" and "own" Gaza. He said under his plan, the homeland of Palestinians would be handed over to the US by Israel, and its residents encouraged to move elsewhere with no right of return. 

The US president later described the coastal strip as "an incredible piece of important real estate."

Source: Press TV