ISTANBUL

Human rights group Amnesty International denounced on Wednesday Israeli plans to concentrate Gaza’s population in a so-called “humanitarian city” as “outrageous,” “inhumane,” and a declared intention “to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that he has instructed his army to prepare a plan to relocate all Palestinians to what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Katz said the entire population will be held in the new zone, and from there, they will be allowed to emigrate from Gaza to other countries.

“Defense Minister Israel Katz’s proposed plans to concentrate all Gaza's residents in a so-called ‘humanitarian city’ on the ruins of Rafah and prevent them from leaving the area are outrageous, inhumane, and unlawful,” Amnesty said in a statement.

It called the Israeli minister’s comments on Palestinian relocation “nothing short of a declared intention to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“They further illustrate the depravity and immorality of Israel’s attitude towards a population it continues to bomb, starve, displace, and dehumanize.”

The London-based group said relocating Palestinians inside Gaza or deporting them elsewhere against their will “would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer or deportation, and when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population, it would also constitute a crime against humanity.”

“Such threats to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity are voiced so unashamedly is a symptom of the failure of world leaders to hold Israel and its leaders accountable for genocide and other atrocities,” Amnesty lamented.

“States must refrain from lending any support to the unlawful transfer or deportation of Palestinians or risk complicity in Israel’s international crimes.”

The Israeli army has killed nearly 57,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.