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Israeli army with large number of tanks, armored personnel carriers, military bulldozers and helicopters continue to attack from air and ground in Khan Yunis, Gaza on March 7, 2024. [Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images]
Three Israeli reserve soldiers have filed a legal petition with the Supreme Court, arguing that the army’s “Operation Gideon Chariots” in Gaza may breach international law, as it appears to aim at the forced transfer and expulsion of the population of the Gaza Strip.
According to Haaretz on Monday, Supreme Court Judge Khaled Kabub has urged the Israeli army to provide a response to the petitioners in hopes of sparing the court from needing to deliberate the matter further.
In a letter sent to the soldiers by an officer from the office of the Israeli Chief of Staff, the military claimed it was “operating broadly throughout the Gaza Strip against terror targets through fire and ground incursions.” He stated that the evacuation of residents was carried out “to reduce the risk to civilians,” adding that “the Israeli army advises and permits civilians in combat zones to evacuate themselves for their protection, as long as military operations continue in the area.”
However, the petitioning soldiers stressed that the forced and permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza – which the Israeli government has publicly identified as one of the war’s objectives – is an illegal military act and stands in direct violation of international law and “the values and spirit of the Israeli army.”
A Palestinian woman reacts as she checks the damages after an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 8, 2025. (Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
A prominent Israeli human rights lawyer condemned the proposal outlined by Israel’s defense minister as “an operational plan for a crime against humanity.”
The Israeli government’s new plan to push all residents in Gaza to live in a camp built atop the ruins of the city of Rafah is drawing heavy criticism from experts who see it as a precursor for ethnic cleansing.
In an interview with The Guardian, Israeli human rights attorney Michael Sfard accused Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz of laying out “an operational plan for a crime against humanity” with his announcement this week of an initiative to build a massive refugee camp at Rafah from which Palestinians would not be allowed to leave. Katz characterized the proposed camp as a “humanitarian city.”
Sfard said that the entire camp was being built as a pretext for the mass deportation of Palestinians from Gaza.
“It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip,” he told The Guardian. “While the government still calls the deportation ‘voluntary,’ people in Gaza are under so many coercive measures that no departure from the strip can be seen in legal terms as consensual. When you drive someone out of their homeland that would be a war crime, in the context of a war. If it’s done on a massive scale like he plans, it becomes a crime against humanity.”
Dr. Amos Goldberg, a historian of the Holocaust at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, picked apart the Israeli government’s claims that the camp in Rafah would be a “humanitarian city” where Palestinian civilians could live safely away from Israeli military operations being conducted against Hamas fighters.
“It is neither humanitarian nor a city,” Goldberg explained. “A city is a place where you have possibilities of work, of earning money, of making connections and freedom of movement. There are hospitals, schools, universities and offices. This is not what they have in mind. It will not be a livable place, just as the ‘safe areas’ are unlivable now.”
Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian human rights activist and director of the Agora Initiative, expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with The National.
“Israel’s Defense Minister Katz isn’t even hiding it any more—he’s openly calling for a concentration camp for Palestinians in Gaza,” he said.
Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of the Refugees International advocacy group, toldReuters that he wasn’t at all buying the Israeli government’s stated humanitarian intentions regarding the construction of the camp.
“There is no such thing as voluntary displacement amongst a population that has been under constant bombardment for nearly two years and has been cut off from essential aid,” he said.
Reutersreported Monday that a $2 billion plan for so-called “humanitarian transit areas” inside Gaza was recently discussed in the Trump White House.
President Donald Trump earlier this year called for the mass removal of Palestinians from Gaza so that the area could be rebuilt as an international beach resort that he described as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
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Aid trucks sent by the United Nations under Israeli attacks enter the Zakim border crossing under the protection of Palestinians and reached the warehouses in the north of in Gaza City, Gaza, on June 25, 2025. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]
Germany on Monday called for the United Nations to take the lead in coordinating aid distribution in Gaza, as concerns mount over civilian deaths at food distribution points, Anadolu reports.
“There is an established and functioning humanitarian aid system, supported by major aid organizations, NGOs and the United Nations. It works. In our view, it must be able to deliver the necessary aid to the people,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kathrin Deschauer at a press conference.
The remarks follow reports that Israeli forces have killed more than 400 Palestinians gathering at US-backed food distribution centers in recent weeks.
“It is shocking and unacceptable that the distribution of aid to people in need is resulting in deaths and also many injuries,” Deschauer added, calling for an investigation into the reports.
Many civilians seeking help and food are being “put in danger,” she said, expressing deep concern about the “dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
On June 27, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) issued a scathing condemnation of the current aid distribution system in Gaza.
“The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X. “Over 400 starving people reported killed since it started operating just a month ago. They were shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families.”
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Maxar satellite imagery of the Greek-flagged crude oil tanker Sounion that was recently attacked by Yemen’s Houthis [Satellite image (c) 2024 Maxar Technologies]
Yemen’s Houthi group claimed responsibility on Monday for an attack on the bulk carrier Magic Seas in the Red Sea, which has left the vessel taking on water and is expected to sink, Anadolu reports.
In a televised statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the vessel was hit by “two unmanned boats, five ballistic and cruise missiles, and three drones” on Sunday.
“The operation directly hit the ship, leading to water ingress. It is now exposed to sink,” Saree said. “Our forces allowed the crew to safely evacuate.”
The Houthi spokesman said the Magic Seas and its affiliated company violated what the group called a “ban on entering occupied Palestinian ports,” in reference to Israeli ports. He did not name the vessel’s owner or operator.
Saree added that the attack followed several warnings sent to the ship, which he said were ignored by the crew.
The Houthis have intensified missile and drone strikes on Israel since the Israeli military resumed attacks on Gaza in March after two months of a shaky ceasefire.
Since November 2023, the group has also targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 57,500 people have been killed in an Israeli onslaught.
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French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot gives a speech in Paris, France on February 13, 2025. [Ümit Dönmez – Anadolu Agency]
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Monday called for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, stressing that they can “no longer wait”, Anadolu reports.
“I believe we can no longer wait, and it seems to me that the conditions are now in place to finally achieve an immediate ceasefire,” Barrot said during a brief press interaction.
He called for the “unhindered” release of all hostages and the “large-scale” access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, “where the Palestinian civilian population is suffering.”
As the EU accelerates its efforts to strike a transatlantic trade deal with the US, Barrot said: “We support the negotiations being led by the European Commission. We want a balanced agreement.”
“We do not want an asymmetrical agreement that would place us in a position of vassalage.”
He further voiced “hope” for reaching an agreement that “safeguards the interests of all parties,” stressing neither the US nor Europe wants a trade war.
Barrot further reassured that the French Embassy in Tehran is “fully aware” and “mobilized” over the disappearance of an 18-year-old French citizen in Iran.
Lennart Monterlos, who was cycling to Japan, has been reportedly missing since June 16, according to the broadcaster BFM TV.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
