Plans to relocate Gazans to a ‘humanitarian city’ look like a crime against humanity – international law expert
James Sweeney, Professor, Lancaster Law School, Lancaster University
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are refusing to implement a government plan to move hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a what it calls a “humanitarian city” in Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, chief of the IDF general staff said the plan was not part of the military’s operational plan for destroying Hamas and freeing the remaining hostages.
Army reservists have reportedly also complained that the plan amounts to a war crime. In my view as an expert in international law, they are correct. Forcibly relocating a population is prohibited, even in war. It is also a crime against humanity and could even amount, under certain circumstances, to genocide.
There is some important historical context to consider before examining the legal issues at play.
The prosecution of crimes against humanity first took place at the Nuremberg trials of surviving senior Nazis after the second world war. By that time the idea of war crimes was clearly established – but they tended to concern what you should not do to the enemy civilian population.
The problem was that the worst atrocities of the Nazis were committed against their own people – the German Jews (and many, many others too). The idea of crimes against humanity was created to fill this gap, and was used to prosecute the surviving masterminds of the Holocaust.
Conditions for a ‘crime against humanity’
Crimes against humanity are a category that contains several separate crimes. If the right conditions are there, you might talk about “the crime against humanity of murder” or the “crime against humanity of rape”. The conditions are that the underpinning crime takes place against a backdrop of a “widespread or systematic” attack on a civilian population.
The attack does not have to include a literal armed attack: apartheid, for example, was established as a crime against humanity in 1973 in response to the policies of the South African government. It is also not necessary that there is an armed conflict for a particular crime to be a crime against humanity.
Within the category of crimes against humanity is included “deportation and forcible transfer” (see article 7 of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court).
This is what the Israeli government’s plan for moving Palestinians into a “humanitarian city” would appear to amount to. If the plan stopped at leaving Gazan Palestinians in Rafah then it would be “forcible transfer”, and if they were relocated to another country it would be “deportation”.
Coercion is key to the crime of forcible transfer. It’s fanciful to think that every single Gazan civilian would want to move to Rafah in circumstances where they would be security-checked on entry and thereafter forbidden from leaving.
How could a liveable city, with all the infrastructure needed, even be created? What of the dentists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, mechanics, entrepreneurs and anyone else who was able to make an honest living? Will they really be given a place to carry out their work?
Ethnic cleansing
The term “ethnic cleansing” is sometimes used to describe what is being proposed by the Israeli government. I dislike the term, and it has no meaning in law. It became a commonly used term during the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia when ethnic Serbs, and in some instances ethnic Croats, expelled hundreds of thousands of people of any other ethnicity out of the territory that they held.
For this practice, the president of the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević, and a string of Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat leaders were charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Milošević died before the ICTY could deliver a verdict in his case, but many others were found guilty. The actions of the Bosnian Serb forces in the town of Srebrenica were even found by the ICTY to have been an act of genocide, because they were not just expelling non-Serbs but wiping them out: at one point in July 1995 they killed around 8,000 men and boys in just a few days.
A lot would depend on the conditions in which the Palestinians would live in the “humanitarian city”. If they were deprived of sufficient food and medical supplies in a way that could only be seen as intended to lead to their deaths, then that too could be held to qualify as an act of genocide.
Justice and accountability
It is clear to me that the forced relocation of Gazans to a “humanitarian city” would violate international law. What is not so clear cut is how to hold its instigators to account.
There are already arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. But there is no international police force and so the ICC relies on participating states to arrest suspects on its behalf. Hungary welcomed Netanyahu in April this year, while announcing it would withdraw from the ICC.
In the same way, Netanyahu flew to Washington DC this week to meet with Donald Trump, but was not arrested because the US doesn’t recognise the ICC. During his visit, Netanyahu announced he would be nominating Trump for the Nobel peace prize.
South Africa has also sought to hold the state of Israel to account at the International Court of Justice, alleging the crime of genocide. The court has yet to rule, saying only that it is plausible that acts of genocide might occur in Gaza.
Since Hamas launched its vicious attack on Isreal on the October 7 2023, there has been constant violence and massive loss of life in the region. However, the proposed “humanitarian city” is not, in my view, a lawful route to peace and stability. As for anyone actually facing justice for the many atrocities that we have seen, an international consensus in favour simply doesn’t exist. And, in the current climate, there’s little sign that it will exist any time soon.
This article was first published on The Conversation
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It is a the intention of the Zionist government to expunge the Palestinians from their home land. And our government does not care.
“Army reservists have reportedly also complained that the plan amounts to a war crime. In my view as an expert in international law, they are correct.”
When had that ever deterred the IDF and the Israeli state? They commit war crimes daily while the western world and its nodding dog media bury their heads into their collective handkerchief like Alice’s Walrus,” I weap for you etc”.
“Israel is doing our dirty work” as the vile German chancellor proudly announces while British LABOUR ministers, dear God, pose for grateful photo ops with the equally repellent Israeli ambassador.
Beautiful just like the reporting by my beloved nation.cymru.
I really detest Isreal.
They don’t have many options when an oil rich rogue state is funding militants to attack them.
A weak response. The zionists have the strength of 2000 years of banking history , Mossad, IDF and nuclear weapons at their own disposal. What do the oil rich countries have?
Wow you support genocide then?
I support creating an environment where Israelis and Palestinians can live together in the region in peace. Do you?
Well, actually do you want peace? Start by clearly condemning the killing of Palestinians in their homeland. If you can’t then neither do you.
Seems you’re more interested in talking about how bad one side is than talking about fixing it?
Fixing it requires condemning the killing and destruction of the Palestinians snd thier homeland. You can’t do that. You don’t want peace. You just want them destroyed.
Focusing on what’s happening now is a conversation that never ends so never reaches a point where the fundamental problems can be addressed. It’s why those who don’t want to solve it and prefer to endlessly talk about how bad one side is try to steer the conversation in that direction.
Kind of like you then. Read your own comment below again.
How so? I haven’t mentioned what Hamas are doing on behalf of Iran.
Yes as it goes i do. Unfortunately you want to ethnically cleanse them from Gaza and the West Bank. So isreal can get what it wants.
Only an extremist element want all the land, the moderate majority just want to live in the region in peace. But those supposedly supporting the Palestinians are gifting the extremists legitimacy by creating a situation where Palestinians are a genuine threat to Israel’s security.
https://truthout.org/articles/polls-show-broad-support-in-israel-for-gazas-destruction-and-starvation/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/majority-israelis-support-expulsion-palestinians-gaza-poll
These links don’t support your view at all. Removing the threat for security reasons is totally different to grabbing the land for ideological reasons.
No they don’t. If this isn’t ideological.then I dont know what is,
Meanwhile, 47 percent of Israeli Jews answered yes to the question: “Do you support the claim that the [Israeli army] in conquering an enemy city, should act in a manner similar to the way the Israelites did when they conquered Jericho under the leadership of Joshua, ie to kill all its inhabitants?” The reference is to the biblical account of the conquest of Jericho.
So killing, destroying and maiming Palestinians and their children and homes is acceptable to you? And it is my fault because I want the killing to stop?
Seems you’re more interested in talking about how bad one side is than talking about fixing it.
The same can be said about you.
https://truthout.org/articles/netanyahu-says-israels-goal-is-to-wipe-out-all-possibility-of-palestinian-state/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-gaza-genocide
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/12/dozens-killed-by-israel-at-aid-site-in-gaza-children-dying-of-malnutrition
There was. Then zionist terrorist started killing Palestinians and the British soldiers stationed there.
This didn’t start on October 7th. This started in the 1940s. Zionists have always been the aggressors
No this has been going on for 80 years because regional powers couldn’t accept a Jewish state in the way they happily accepted the creation of Islamic states of Pakistan and Bangladesh, which also involved violence, lost ancestral lands and entrenched grievances.
If the zionists split up their land like India did then countries will recognise the 2 countries just like they did to Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Source for Iran’s readiness to recognise Israel?
Why? Even they recognise Zion, what is to stop them attacking the country like the zionists did to them, a sovereign nation, one recognised by Zion itself?
Iran don’t recognise Israel according to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Israel
You have a bad habit of not answering the question posed to you?
What was the question? You wrote about Iran “Even they recognise Zion” which isn’t true.
No Palestine existed and welcomed Jews that the rest of the world turned their backs on prior to and after World War 2. Zionist terrorists attacked and murdered the very people who had given them refuge. If the zionist people wanted a state of their own surely they could have chosen somewhere not already occupied or a country where they didn’t have to conduct terrorist atrocities to achieve that. But they did. Where is your condemnation of that? You seem to be happy to evict Palestinians who have lived there for centuries on behalf of European and American zionist. With… Read more »
Both people’s have a legitimate connection to the region. Northern Ireland would still be a warzone if everyone took your advice.
What advice has he given?
To focus on the division and what’s happened instead of looking to the future.
I can’t see it anywhere in hospital comment.
“His ” not hospital
Because the comment is all about the past and not the future. How anyone speaks or acts is always implicit guidance to others.
Unless you start to condemn the current actions of the zionists, the future will always be bloodshed. We have to.learn from the past, look at the present and pray for the future. The present starts with reconciliation and reflection.
That’s not how peace in Northern Ireland was achieved.
I didn’t realise Northern Ireland is the promised land.
It’s an example of a sectarian conflict that was solved by not constantly talking about how bad one side was.
We have the tucker plan above which I like very much.
As Trump ignores laws unles they are favourable to him he is unlkely to condemn
Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza even when International law condems those continuing actions!!!!
Watching the ongoing slaughter of children in Gaza waiting for food on the news is harrowing. We have the media put more time and effort into reporting Wimbledon that they do the deaths of Palestinian children at the hands of Zionist Israel. No condemnation or any criticism towards their human rights abuses or warcrimes committed. Nothing? It’s caveats and complicity.
Sad but true. Weird world we live in now. We know about bad things happening yet we don’t feel anything. When we say something, the bots pop up and start confusing and deflecting us. Things will change. They always do. The past shows us. Some learn from the past, others don’t.
It’s a weird world indeed, but not a new one, that sees some people use one group of people to attack another group of people while still claiming a moral high ground. But since both groups are Semitic I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise when the oldest hatred in human history continues to be played out in this way.