What were Israel's ‘genocidal acts' against reproductive health in Gaza?
Published On 13 Mar 2025
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Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israel increased Rafah demolition to prepare for Gaza forced transfer plan
Demolition operations being conducted by Israel in Gaza's southern Rafah Governorate have been stepped up sharply, an investigation by Al Jazeera's Sanad investigations unit has found. Israel's defence ministry has announced a plan to relocate 600,000 people into what observers say would be 'concentration camps' in the area in southern Gaza, with plans to expand this to the Strip's entire population. Sanad's analysis of satellite imagery up to July 4, 2025, shows the number of demolished buildings in Rafah rising to about 28,600, up from 15,800 on April 4, 2025, according to data from the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT). This means that approximately 12,800 buildings were destroyed between early April and early July alone – a marked acceleration in demolitions that has coincided with Israel's new push into Rafah launched in late March 2025. 'Humanitarian city' Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, told reporters on Monday that an initial 600,000 Palestinians living in the coastal al-Mawasi area would be transferred to Rafah, the location for what he called a new 'humanitarian city' for Palestinians, within 60 days of any agreed ceasefire deal. According to Katz, the entire civilian population of Gaza – more than 2 million people – will eventually be relocated to this southern city. A proposal seen by Reuters carrying the name of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) detailed plans for a 'Humanitarian Transit Area' in which Gaza residents would 'temporarily reside, deradicalise, re-integrate and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so'. The minister said Israel hopes to encourage Palestinians to 'voluntarily emigrate' from the Gaza Strip to other countries, adding that this plan 'should be fulfilled'. He also stressed that the plan would not be run by the Israeli army, but by international bodies, without specifying which organisations would be implementing it. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) – which has been banned by Israel – warned against the latest mass forced displacement plan. 'This would de facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced over and over across generations,' he said, adding that it would 'deprive Palestinians of any prospects of a better future in their homeland'. Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera that the plan was 'for all facts and purposes a concentration camp' for Palestinians in southern Gaza, meaning that Israel is committing 'what is an overt crime against humanity under international humanitarian law'. 'It should be taken very seriously,' he said, and questioned the feasibility of the task of 'concentrating the Palestinian population in a locked city where they would be let in but not let out'. The sheer scale of the destruction, and some exceptions For now, Rafah, which was once home to an estimated 275,000 people, lies largely in ruins. The scale of Israeli destruction since April this year is particularly apparent when examining specific neighbourhoods of Rafah. Since Israel breached the last ceasefire agreement with Hamas on March 19, its forces have directly targeted several institutions. Sanad has identified six educational facilities that have been destroyed, including some located in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah City. However, satellite data shows that several key facilities have been spared; 40 educational institutions – 39 schools and one university – are intact. Eight medical centres also remain standing. Sanad has concluded that this noticeable pattern of selective destruction strongly suggests that the preservation of these facilities in Rafah is unlikely to be a coincidence. Rather, it indicates that Israel aims to use these sites in the next phase of its proposed plan to displace the entire population of Gaza to Rafah. The spared educational and medical buildings already serve as critical humanitarian shelters for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians. The war's initial wave of displacement from northern to southern Gaza resulted in an overwhelming influx of people into the 154 UN facilities across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, including schools, warehouses and health centres. According to UNRWA's Situation Report in January 2024, these facilities were by then sheltering approximately 1.4 million displaced people, an average of 9,000 people per facility, while an additional 500,000 people were receiving support from other services. The report also notes that in some shelters, the number exceeds 12,000, four times their intended capacity. According to UNRWA's latest report on July 5 this year, 1.9 million people remain displaced in Gaza. Satellite imagery analysis of the Rafah area from May 2024 to May 2025 reveals that Israeli forces carried out a two-phase operation in Rafah, including in areas which had been designated for humanitarian aid distribution. Phase One began with the launch of a military offensive in May 2024, during which most buildings in targeted zones in most of eastern Rafah and parts of western Rafah were demolished. Phase Two, which began in April this year, involves the continued demolition of remaining residential buildings. This phase also included land levelling and the construction of access roads to facilitate the operation of these aid centres. British Israeli analyst Daniel Levy told Al Jazeera that Israel intends to use Rafah 'as a staging post to ethnically cleanse, physically remove, as many Palestinians as possible from the landscape'. The distribution of aid, which is now under the monopoly of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is run by private US contractors guarded by Israeli troops, is also 'a premeditated part of a plan of social-demographic engineering to move Palestinians – to relocate, displace and kettle them,' Levy said. Ceasefire talks Katz's announcement came a day after Netanyahu arrived in the US to meet US President Donald Trump, as the latter pushes for a deal to end the war in Gaza and bring back the remaining Hamas-held captives. Netanyahu stressed his opposition to any deal that would ultimately leave Hamas in power in Gaza. 'Twenty living hostages remain and 30 who are fallen. I am determined, we are determined, to bring back all of them,' he told reporters before boarding his plane. He added, however: 'We are determined to ensure that Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel.' 'That means one thing: eliminating Hamas's military and governing capabilities. Hamas will not be there,' he said. An Israeli negotiating team was in Doha this week for indirect talks with Hamas. Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had accepted the latest ceasefire proposal, which provides for the release, in five separate stages, of 10 living and 18 dead captives, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, an influx of humanitarian aid to the Strip and the release of many Palestinian detainees currently held in Israeli prisons. Hamas gave what it called a 'positive' response to the proposal, stressing its reservations about the temporary nature of the proposed truce and making some demands. Netanyahu's office called Hamas's stipulations, concerning aid mechanisms and Israel's military withdrawal, 'unacceptable'. Ethnic cleansing: the 'end game' A sticking point remains Israel's control of the Morag Corridor, just north of Rafah, which would allow Israel to control and isolate Rafah, facilitating the implementation of the mass expulsion plan. In his remarks on Monday, Katz said Israel would use a potential 60-day ceasefire to establish the new 'humanitarian zone' south of the corridor, and that the army would hold nearly 70 percent of Gaza's territory. Gideon Levy, Israeli columnist for Haaretz, told Al Jazeera negotiations were unlikely to result in more than a temporary ceasefire, whith the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners, as 'Netanyahu doesn't want an end to the war.' While Trump could pressure his ally into a permanent deal, the US president does not seem inclined to pull his weight, observers say. 'The end game is an ethnic cleansing,' Levy said. 'Will it be implemented? I have my doubts. 'But they are already preparing the area, and if the world is passive and the US gives its green light, it might work.'
Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,235
Here is how things stand on Sunday, July 13: Fighting Ukrainian officials said Russian air attacks overnight on Saturday killed at least two people in the western city of Chernivtsi and wounded 38 others across Ukraine. The raids also damaged civilian infrastructure from Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast to Lviv, Lutsk and Chernivtsi in the west. The Russian Ministry of Defence said it attacked companies in Ukraine's military-industrial complex in Lviv, Kharkiv and Lutsk, as well as a military aerodrome. The United Nations Human Rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said that June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured. In Russia, a man was killed in the Belgorod region after a shell struck a private house, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Politics and diplomacy North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told visiting Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov that his country was ready to 'unconditionally support' all actions taken by Moscow in Ukraine. Earlier, Lavrov held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, in Wonsan, and they issued a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other's countries, according to North Korean state media. Lavrov also warned the United States, South Korea and Japan against forming 'alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia'. Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, said his government hoped to reach an agreement with the European Union and its partners on guarantees that Slovakia would not suffer from the end of Russian gas supplies by Tuesday. Slovakia has been blocking the EU's 18th sanctions package on Russia over its disagreement with a proposal to end all imports of Russian gas from 2028. Slovakia, which gets the majority of its gas from Russian supplier Gazprom under a long-term deal valid until 2034, argues the move could cause shortages, a rise in prices and transit fees, and lead to damage claims. Russia blamed Western sanctions for the collapse of its agreement with the UN to facilitate exports of Russian food and fertilisers. The three-year agreement was signed in 2022 in a bid to rein in global food prices. Weapons Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was 'close to reaching a multilevel agreement' with the US 'on new Patriot systems and missiles for them'. Ukraine was stepping up production of its own interceptor systems, he added.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli settlers beat to death US citizen in West Bank, family says
Israeli settlers have beaten to death a United States citizen in the occupied West Bank, the victim's family members and rights groups have said. Settlers attacked and killed Sayfollah Musallet – who was in his early 20s – in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Musallet, also known as Saif al-Din Musalat, had travelled from his home in Florida to visit family in Palestine, his cousin Fatmah Muhammad said in a social media post. Another Palestinian, identified by the Health Ministry as Mohammed Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers during the attack. Rights advocates have documented repeated instances where Israeli settlers in the West Bank ransack Palestinian neighbourhoods and towns, burning homes and vehicles in attacks sometimes described as pogroms. The Israeli military often protects the settlers during their rampages and has shot Palestinians who show any resistance. The United Nations and other prominent human rights organisations consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank violations of international law, as part of a broader strategy to displace Palestinians. While some Western countries like France and Australia have imposed sanctions on violent settlers, attacks have increased since the outbreak of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. When Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration revoked sanctions on settlers imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden. Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. But none of the incidents have resulted in criminal charges. The US provides billions of dollars to Israel every year. Advocates have accused successive US administrations of failing to protect American citizens from Israeli violence in the Middle East. On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Washington to ensure accountability for the killing of Musallet. 'Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians,' CAIR deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. He then pointed out that Trump has repeatedly promised to prioritise American interests, as typified by his campaign slogan 'America First'. 'If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration,' Mitchell said. The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) also called for action from the US administration, noting that settlers are 'lynching Palestinians more frequently – with full support from Israel's army and government'. 'The US government has a legal and moral obligation to stop Israel's racist violence against Palestinians. Instead, it's still backing and funding it,' the group said in a statement. The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment about the killing of Musallet. The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the murder of Musallet, describing it as 'barbaric', and called on Palestinians across the West Bank to rise up to 'confront the settlers and their terrorist attacks'. Israel said it was 'investigating' what happened in Sinjil, claiming that the violence started when Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle. 'Shortly thereafter, violent clashes developed in the area between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included the destruction of Palestinian property, arson, physical confrontations, and stone-throwing,' the Israeli military said in a statement. Israeli investigations often lead to no charges or meaningful accountability for the abuses of Israeli officers and settlers. As settler and military violence intensifies in the West Bank, Israel has killed at least 57,762 Palestinians in Gaza in a campaign that rights groups have described as a genocide.
