In this report , we read that Israel is turning Gaza into a death camp denser than Srebrenica and is imposing displacement under the guise of voluntary migration.
The report continues, “Israel is legitimizing and implementing a systematic pattern of geographic blockade of Gaza that goes beyond a comprehensive blockade to include forced internal confinement. This traps Palestinians in a small, devastated area in conditions more severe and crowded than those of the besieged Srebrenica enclave before its fall in 1995, when the genocide occurred.”
The Srebrenica genocide stands as a stark historical warning about the deadly impact of surrounding civilians and depriving them of protection and the essential necessities of life, especially when these actions are part of a systematic pattern of behavior that is a core component of ongoing genocide, as seen in Gaza.
On the eve of the fall of Srebrenica in 1995, nearly 40,000 people were besieged in an area of approximately 150 square kilometers. Meanwhile, for most of Gaza’s approximately 2.1 million inhabitants, the remaining habitable area has shrunk to about 128 square kilometers.
Israel is changing the demographic and military landscape of the Gaza Strip by increasing its de facto control and imposing severe restrictions on approximately 65 percent of the besieged area.
Geographically and demographically, Gaza is now confined to an area about 15 percent smaller than Srebrenica, but has a population more than 50 times larger and a population density almost 60 times higher, all of it amidst rubble, garbage, and a severe lack of basic living conditions.
Israel is changing the demographic and military landscape of the Gaza Strip by increasing its practical control and imposing severe restrictions on approximately 65 percent of the enclave. This action deprives more than two million residents of essential resources, prevents them from returning to their lands and homes, and places large parts of Gaza under Israeli military control in restricted areas. These measures effectively amount to illegal annexation and land grabs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to extend military control over 70 percent of Gaza indicates a goal to expand settler colonization and expel the area’s indigenous Palestinians, as the plan would leave only about 109 square kilometers for residents. If this were to happen, the per capita share of the remaining space would decrease to approximately 52 square meters and the population density would increase to about 19,300 people per square kilometer, approximately 72 times higher than the population density in Srebrenica in 1995.
While the numerical figures for population density are alarming, they do not fully reflect the grim reality of the suffocating overcrowding that Gaza residents face. Much of the remaining land has been deliberately rendered uninhabitable through systematic demolition. The area is littered with vast amounts of rubble from homes and civilian objects. The area is riddled with destroyed infrastructure and blocked roads, hindering movement, access and humanitarian efforts. In addition, the situation is made worse by garbage, remnants of war, contamination of water sources, collapsed sewage systems and land without shelter or safe places to move.
In addition to the severe overcrowding, most residents live either in dilapidated tents with no shelter from the summer heat, winter cold, or rain, or in severely damaged houses that could collapse at any moment. These structures are at risk from constant Israeli bombardment or natural elements such as wind and rain.
This situation poses countless risks to hundreds of thousands of families, including buildings collapsing on residents, fires in crowded tents, and outbreaks of disease due to poor sanitation, inadequate ventilation, and lack of clean water. It also deprives them of privacy and security, particularly affecting women, children, and the elderly, as there are no safe housing options that can help residents escape the extreme overcrowding.
The residents of the Gaza Strip are faced with a reality that deliberately exposes them to conditions aimed at weakening the Palestinian population, either partially or completely. This includes measures such as deportation or forced transfer, along with attempts to legitimize and promote this displacement internationally under misleading titles such as “freedom of movement” or “voluntary migration.”
Ongoing killings, military operations, sieges and deprivation of adequate food are examples of systematic measures that undermine the lives of civilians. These measures include the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, the effective denial of return, the military occupation of large areas of land, the restriction of access to medical, health and educational services, the prevention of reconstruction and the forcing of residents into areas that lack the basic necessities of survival. Taken together, these measures turn any choice into the result of physical and psychological coercion by the Israeli authorities. Therefore, any departure of residents from the Gaza Strip under these conditions cannot be considered voluntary, but rather constitutes forced displacement, which is prohibited under international law.
The forcible population transfer efforts are a direct continuation of Israel’s decades-long settlement-colonial approach, based on policies aimed at erasing the history, space, and demography of Palestine, along with the systematic seizure of land. This phase is characterized by its rapid pace and vast scope, and aims to address the ongoing genocide of more than two million people who have been deprived of legal protection and basic survival facilities for nearly three years.
These systematic acts of coercion, along with the dehumanization they entail, are deliberately designed to force residents to make a stark choice: either face physical destruction or be forced to leave their homeland. This is not a voluntary decision, but a mandatory condition for survival, which highlights the situation in the Gaza Strip as a documented example of mass deportation and forced transfer in modern legal history.
The international community and all states must firmly oppose any plan to evacuate Gaza or force residents to leave using misleading terms such as “voluntary migration” or “freedom of movement.” Such population movements, without safe alternatives and under constant physical and psychological pressure, are not truly voluntary but constitute the crime of forced displacement. They are prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. When this occurs in the context of an ongoing genocide, it raises the responsibility of all states to prevent and stop the crime, to refrain from recognizing any illegal situation arising from it, to refrain from aiding or abetting its continuation, and to cooperate in ending it and ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.
All countries should implement swift and effective punitive measures against Israel, rather than simply issuing statements of condemnation or broad appeals. This includes imposing diplomatic, economic and military sanctions; suspending any agreements, concessions or cooperation that enable ongoing crimes or provide political cover; imposing a comprehensive embargo on the supply, transfer, purchase or import of arms, ammunition, military and security equipment and technology; freezing the assets of the Israeli officials involved; and imposing a travel ban on them. Maintaining normal relations with a country that commits genocide and forced displacement, or providing it with arms, political and economic support, could be seen as contributing to the ongoing illegal situation. It may also violate the obligations of countries to prevent and suppress the crime and to refrain from aiding or abetting it.
The international community must act swiftly and decisively to dismantle Israel’s illegal system of control, detention and apartheid over Palestinians, including residents of the Gaza Strip. This includes immediately ending the Israeli military presence; removing the barriers, buffer zones and restricted areas that reduce the size of the Strip and make it difficult for residents to access; and ensuring the prompt and unconditional return of displaced persons to their original homes. These measures are essential to prevent de facto annexation, settler colonization and the forced displacement of Palestinians.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Watch calls for urgent international action to lift the illegal blockade of Gaza and establish safe and sustainable humanitarian access. This includes opening UN-monitored humanitarian corridors for the free flow of food, medicine, fuel, medical equipment, and shelter without arbitrary restrictions. The deployment of independent international monitors is crucial to verify compliance with regulations and ensure that essential aid and services are not used as a tool for genocide.
Furthermore, donors, countries and international organizations must move beyond mere disaster management through temporary relief. They must take immediate action to provide safe and decent shelter solutions for residents, including allowing unrestricted access to shelter materials and essential supplies, and urgently repairing health facilities, water and sanitation networks and critical infrastructure. Without lifting the blockade, ending Israeli restrictions on the entry of materials and equipment, ensuring the return of residents to their areas, and halting the ongoing destruction of civilian structures, there can be no real path to reconstruction.
Reconstruction efforts should not replace accountability or normalize the consequences of Israeli crimes. Instead, Israel should be forced to accept legal responsibility for the massive destruction and ensure the victims’ rights to reparations, compensation, and the restoration of safe living conditions in their lands.
States with universal jurisdiction should issue arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders involved in the ongoing genocide and initiate legal proceedings to fulfill their international legal obligation to prosecute serious crimes and combat impunity. They should also hold their own citizens who commit violations of Palestinian rights accountable, in accordance with their national and international legal obligations and within the framework of their territorial or personal jurisdiction.
The relevant UN agencies should immediately conduct an independent assessment of the Gaza Strip to identify areas that are truly safe for human habitation and use. This would expose Israel’s distortion of nominal geographical areas as habitable. Euro-Med Monitor stresses the importance of making a legal and practical distinction between the theoretical geographical areas that are still accessible to residents and the areas that are actually suitable for habitation or for safe relocation centers, which should be free of debris, environmental and health hazards, unexploded ordnance and remnants of war.
The Gaza Strip is the world’s largest open-air prison. The Palestinian people in this strip of terror face war crimes, massacres, and displacement every day. This is while the so-called civilized world turns a blind eye to all the crimes of the Zionist regime in this region and confronts every act of freedom with various labels.
