Concentration, removal and occupation: Netanyahu's vision for the future of Gaza

Rights groups say the Israeli plans for a 'humanitarian city' and emigration amount to ethnic cleansing and displacement

- BEL TREW RICHARD HALL ALICJA HAGOPIAN

Gaza was one of the most densely populated places in the world before the war. Today, the roughly 2 million Palestinians who still call it home have been forced into an area just a fifth of its original size by a year and a half of bombing, displacement orders and militarised zones.

Under a bleak vision for the future pitched by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Donald Trump in Washington DC this week, they could be forced into an even smaller area still, or out of Gaza entirely, unable to return to what is left of their homes.

Netanyahu may have left Washington without a deal signed and sealed, but his proposals for Gaza continue apace.

The plan would see those 2 million people concentrated into a “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza, where anyone who wants to leave would be helped to emigrate and those who remain would live under the tight control of the Israeli army, which would hold on to specific territories, sources familiar with the plan have told The Independent.

One idea being floated is that Israeli troops retain control of three connected strategic corridors in Gaza: the Philadelphi corridor, a nine-mile strip which covers the border region between Gaza and Egypt; the Netzarim corridor, a band that dissects Gaza in half; and a third strip in the middle, which is now being called the “Morag Corridor”.

Some details of the plan emerged in a briefing given by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, this week. In it, he said he had instructed the Israeli army to prepare for a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, which would eventually house the entire population of the Gaza Strip. Once inside the city, Katz said residents would not be allowed to leave, according to sources briefed on that meeting.

Another proposal seen by