GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reiterated its serious warning over the dangers of the Israeli–US agreement to establish what is termed a “green city” in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, presented as a solution for housing Gaza’s population forcibly displaced for more than two years and still living in deteriorating displacement tents.
The Euro-Med pointed out that the plan, whose details have previously been revealed, entails grave risks, including the imposition of arrangements that would, in effect, forcibly displace Palestinians from their original places of residence and convert large areas of the Gaza Strip into closed military zones under the direct control of the Israeli army.
The rights group raised deep concern over Israeli media reports indicating that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed, during their most recent meeting, to move forward with implementing the plan. The initial phase reportedly involves constructing buildings resembling caravans designated for Palestinian civilians.
According to these reports, Israeli army forces are working alongside contractors to clear the area, which is already under full Israeli control, remove rubble, level the land, and prepare it for the construction of the city. The pace of these preparations is expected to accelerate in the coming period.
This plan represents yet another model of failure in addressing the consequences of the ongoing genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. It advances unrealistic proposals aimed, in essence, at demographic reengineering, altering the population structure of the Strip, and imposing a new reality grounded in control, domination, and humiliation, while offering no genuine solutions to civilian suffering.
The experience of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation serves as a stark reminder. Aid distribution centers it established in Rafah, rapidly turned into sites of killing, abuse, arrest, and enforced disappearance, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians, Euro-Med said.
The “green city” plan entrenches a reality of prolonged unlawful control, de facto annexation of land by force, and the imposition of unlawful forms of collective confinement of civilians, in clear violation of international law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
According to Euro-Med, the area designated for the new city is currently under Israeli military control and hosts armed militias created by Israel, militias that have been proven to be involved in killings, intimidation, and theft against Palestinians, raising serious questions about their role in the emerging landscape being prepared in the area.
In early December, details were disclosed regarding the US plan for the Gaza Strip, developed through the US civil–military coordination center. The plan is based on establishing a rigid system of geographic segregation that divides Gaza into population blocs and closed military zones.
Under this framework, more than half of the Gaza Strip is effectively placed within a closed military zone under direct Israeli army control, where strict systems of surveillance and military administration are imposed. A coercive environment is enforced, characterized by restrictions on movement, control over aid and essential services, and deprivation of a range of fundamental rights. These measures are used as pressure tools to push residents to leave their original places of residence and forcibly relocate to designated areas labeled “safe” within the closed military zone, without being granted any genuine choice to remain or return home.
The first phase of the plan divides Gaza into a “red zone” and a “green zone” under full Israeli military control, where armed groups formed and armed by Israel are deployed. A “yellow line” separates the two zones and is treated as a military field boundary, where Israeli forces apply a shoot-to-kill policy against anyone attempting to cross or approach it.
This imaginary line, marked by yellow indicators, has not remained fixed. It has been physically pushed beyond the published maps, advancing in some sections by more than one kilometer into the Gaza Strip. It is used as a tool for unilaterally redrawing military control lines, gradually expanding the areas under direct Israeli control. As a result, the proportion of land within the yellow zone has expanded from 53% of Gaza’s total area to approximately 60% in recent weeks due to Israeli expansions and the relocation of the markers.
Under the plan, additional areas of the Strip are subjected to a closed military regime, and the freedom of movement of Gaza’s population is severely restricted, entrenching de facto annexation of land and fragmenting the territorial unity of the Strip in violation of international law.
The Euro-Med indicated that the plan relies on transferring Palestinians from the red zone to the green zone through various pressure mechanisms. This is achieved by creating a coercive living and security environment in the red zone and linking access to relative protection and basic services to consent to relocation to specific areas within the green zone, following extensive security screening processes. This strips the transfer of any genuine voluntary character and places it squarely within the framework of forcible displacement prohibited under international humanitarian law.
These measures are not limited to temporary population management. At their core, they aim to reengineer the demographic composition and redraw the population and political map of the Strip by separating communities and sorting residents along security and political lines. This produces a new reality based on an organized system of discrimination, in which individuals are denied the freedom to choose their place of residence, build stable family lives, move freely, work, or participate in public affairs. Access to basic services, resources, education, and employment becomes contingent on security classification and restrictive criteria imposed by an unlawful occupying authority, transforming rights guaranteed under international law into conditional privileges that can be arbitrarily withdrawn.
The plan includes the construction of “cities” made of containers (residential caravans) within the green zone, each designed to house around 25,000 people within an area not exceeding one square kilometer. These cities are to be surrounded by fences and checkpoints, with entry and exit permitted only after security screening, effectively turning them into overcrowded detention camps, imposing severe restrictions on residents’ movement and daily lives.
The design of these proposed “cities” mirrors historical models of ghettos, where colonial and racist regimes confined specific populations into enclosed neighborhoods surrounded by fences and guard posts, with movement, entry, exit, and resources controlled externally, as seen in European ghettos during the Second World War and in other closed districts imposed on indigenous or marginalized groups in colonial and racist contexts. Such forced spatial segregation does not provide “temporary shelter” but rather creates imposed enclaves where entire populations are treated as administrable entities under control, rather than as individuals entitled to freedom of movement, housing, and life within their original communities.
According to Euro-Med, available data indicate that engineering units associated with the plan have already begun practical steps to launch the first pilot city in Rafah, which Israel has completely destroyed over the past two years.
The plan is based on systematic discrimination against Palestinians, linking the transfer of large numbers to the temporary “cities” in the green zone to passing security screening procedures whose criteria are set by Israeli and US authorities. This allows for the exclusion of wide segments of the population deemed “non-compliant” or “security risks,” including individuals with alleged political, organizational, or civic affiliations that do not align with the Israeli–US vision for the imposed arrangements. Those excluded are left in areas more exposed to siege and danger. As a result, relative protection and basic services, such as housing, food, and healthcare, are transformed from rights guaranteed to all without discrimination into tools of sorting and pressure, granted or withheld based on unilateral security and political assessments.
Euro-Med warned that life inside these temporary cities would unfold under arbitrary security surveillance and governance arrangements imposed without the residents’ consent. They would be denied any real choice to accept or reject these conditions, stripped of the ability to participate in managing their public affairs, and subjected to a new political and administrative reality that directly undermines the future of the Strip, the identity of its population, and their right to self-determination on their land through external interference.
This plan is not limited to provisional security or humanitarian arrangements. It falls within a broader trajectory aimed at fragmenting the unity of Palestinian land and people. It effectively seeks to entrench a permanent and complete separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and to impose a “starting from zero” logic through the creation of a new authority in Gaza, detached from the national framework and existing Palestinian representative institutions and subject to the conditions of the plan’s sponsors. This would reengineer the Palestinian political structure against the will of an occupied people, threaten fundamental rights, dismantle the social and political fabric, and gravely undermine the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination as a single unit across their entire occupied territory.
The US role, according to Euro-Med, in shaping and sponsoring this plan is subject to sharp criticism. The United States is not acting as a neutral mediator or humanitarian supporter, but as an active party involved in designing a field, political architecture that entrenches occupation, de facto annexation, and forcible displacement under the guise of alleged security and humanitarian arrangements. US oversight of the civil–military coordination center, leadership of the planning process, and use of political influence to advance these divisions through international frameworks contradict its obligations under international law not to recognize unlawful situations or provide assistance in maintaining them. This exposes it to the risk of complicity in serious violations, including forcible population transfer, unlawful seizure of land and natural resources, and the undermining of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
“Any arrangements in Gaza cannot constitute a solution, nor even a legitimate “temporary administration,” unless they are first grounded in ending the occupation through a complete and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory; ending the unlawful military, administrative, and settlement presence; lifting the land, sea, and air blockade imposed on Gaza; guaranteeing freedom of movement and access, including the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials; and enabling Palestinians to rebuild their homes, infrastructure, and civil institutions themselves, in full respect of their inalienable right to self-determination on their land.”
Euro-Med called on states and influential international actors, foremost among them the United Nations and States Parties to the Geneva Conventions, to reject any plan or field arrangements that maintain or reproduce Israeli control in the form of “enclaves” or “transitional zones,” saying that they must refrain from recognizing or assisting any situation involving forcible population transfer, de facto annexation of land, exploitation of the resources of occupied territory, or the undermining of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
It also urged them to exert genuine pressure to immediately lift the blockade, open crossings for humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials, guarantee Palestinians’ right to manage their own affairs and freely choose their representatives, and support international accountability pathways for crimes and violations committed, to ensure that no party enjoys impunity.
