TNA Staff
The New Arab / April 9, 2025
Israel is seizing depopulated areas of Gaza in a move critics say signals a genocidal push to erase the enclave.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has openly declared on Wednesday that the military is seizing large swathes of territory in Gaza and transforming them into depopulated buffer zones – moves widely condemned as part of an escalating and potentially genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians from the enclave.
Katz made the comments during a visit to the newly established “Morag Corridor,” a militarised strip between Rafah and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where Israeli forces are pushing ahead with what critics say amounts to a land grab under the guise of security.
“Large areas are being seized and added to Israel’s security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated,” Katz said.
In a statement that appeared to shift responsibility onto the victims of the onslaught, Katz said the population of Gaza was already “evacuating from combat zones” and urged them to rise against Hamas, suggesting this was “the only way to stop the war”.
He also echoed far-right Israeli and Trump-era rhetoric by mentioning efforts to implement plans for the “voluntary emigration” of Gaza’s residents – language that rights groups and many observers see as euphemism for forced population transfer, a violation of international law.
He invoked former US President Donald Trump’s plan for the “voluntary emigration” of Gaza’s population, a concept widely viewed by human rights groups as forced displacement in violation of international law, saying Israel was working to implement the plan.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel confirmed earlier this week that Israel had already begun deporting Palestinians from Gaza through Ramon Airport, with over 16 flights carrying civilians out of the besieged enclave.
The remarks come as Israel resumes its devastating bombing campaign across the Strip. On Wednesday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 23 civilians, including children and women, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City.
The Israeli army claimed it had targeted a senior Hamas figure but gave no name, again invoking the widely criticised justification that Hamas uses civilians as “human shields”. Human rights organisations have long rejected this blanket narrative, pointing to systematic Israeli disregard for civilian life and infrastructure.
Israel’s military operations have already displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, destroyed hospitals and schools, and created what the UN and humanitarian agencies describe as a man-made famine.
The continued expansion of military zones and depopulated corridors raises alarms that Israel is pursuing not just military objectives, but a permanent transformation of Gaza’s geography and demographics.
Legal scholars and genocide experts have warned that the pattern of destruction, displacement, and dehumanising rhetoric emerging from top Israeli officials could meet the threshold of genocide under international law.
Agencies contributed to this report
