The demolition operations carried out by Israel in the governorate of the southern Gaza Rafah were strongly intensified, revealed an investigation by the Sanad of Tel Aviv Tribune investigative unit.
The Israeli Defense Ministry has announced a plan to move 600,000 people in what observers say they are “concentration camps” in the region of southern Gaza, with plans to extend this to the entire population of the strip.
The analysis by Sanad of satellite images until July 4, 2025 shows the number of buildings demolished in Rafah reaching approximately 28,600, against 15,800 on April 4, 2025, according to data from the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT).
This means that around 12,800 buildings were destroyed between early April and early July – a marked acceleration of demolitions which coincided with the new push of Israel in Rafah launched at the end of March 2025.
“Humanitarian City”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told journalists on Monday that a first 600,000 Palestinians living in the Al-Mawasi coastal region would be transferred to Rafah, the place of what he called a new “humanitarian city” for the Palestinians, within 60 days of any agreed agreement.
According to Katz, the entire civilian population of Gaza – more than 2 million people – will finally be moved to this southern city.
A proposal observed by Reuters bearing the name of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation supported by the United States (GHF) detailed plans for a “humanitarian transit zone” in which the residents of Gaza “would temporarily reside, deradicate, would reintegrate and prepare to move if they wish”.
The Minister said ISRAEL hoped to encourage Palestinians to “voluntarily emigrate” from the Gaza Strip to other countries, adding that this plan “should be carried out”.
He also stressed that the plan would not be managed by the Israeli army, but by international organizations, without specifying which organizations would implement it.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) – who was prohibited by Israel – warned the last mass forced mass travel plan.
“This would de facto create massive concentration camps on the border with Egypt for the Palestinians, displaced several times between generations,” he said, adding that “would deprive the Palestinians from all prospects for a better future in their homeland”.
Israeli political commentator Or Goldberg, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the plan was “for all ends of concentration” for the Palestinians in the south of Gaza, which means that Israel commits “which is a manifest crime against humanity under international humanitarian law”.
“This 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 go but not let escape”.
The destruction scale and some exceptions
For the moment, Rafah, who once housed around 275,000 people, resides largely in ruins. The extent of Israeli destruction since April of this year is particularly apparent when examining the specific Rafah neighborhoods.
Al-Zohour district
Al-Jnaina district
Tal As-Sultan district
Since Israel violated the last cease-fire agreement with Hamas on March 19, its forces directly targeted several institutions.
Sanad identified six educational establishments that have been destroyed, some of which are located in the Tal As-Sultan district, west of Rafah City.
However, satellite data show that several key installations have been spared; 40 educational establishments – 39 schools and a university – are intact. Eight medical centers are also standing.
Sanad concluded that this notable model of selective destruction strongly suggests that the preservation of these installations in Rafah is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Rather, it indicates that Israel aims to use these sites in the next phase of its plan proposed to move the entire population of Gaza to Rafah.
The educational and medical buildings saved are already used as critical humanitarian refuges for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
The initial wave of trips to the northern war south of Gaza led to an influx of people in the 154 United Nations installations in the five governors of the Gaza Strip, including schools, warehouses and health centers.
According to the UNRWA’s situation report in January 2024, these installations then housed around 1.4 million displaced people, on average 9,000 people per installation, while an additional 500,000 people were supporting other services.
The report also notes that in some shelters, the number exceeds 12,000, four times their planned capacity.
According to the latest UNRWA report on July 5 of this year, 1.9 million people are moved to Gaza.
The analysis of satellite imagery of the Rafah region from May 2024 to May 2025 reveals that the Israeli forces carried out a two -phase operation in Rafah, including in areas designated for a distribution of humanitarian aid.
The first phase began with the launch of a military offensive in May 2024, during which most of the buildings in the targeted areas of the main part of the Rafah and the parts of the west of the Rafah were demolished.
The second phase, which started in April of this year, implies the continuous demolition of remaining residential buildings. This phase also included land leveling and the construction of access roads to facilitate the operation of these aid centers.
British Israeli analyst Daniel Levy told Tel Aviv Tribune that Israel intended to use Rafah “as a staging post to clean ethnically, by physically suppressing, 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 led by private American entrepreneurs kept by Israeli troops, is also “a premeditated part of a social engineering plan to move Palestinians – to relocate, move and butcher,” said Levy.
Ceasefire conferences
Katz’s announcement one day occurred after the United States arrived in Netanyahu to meet US President Donald Trump, as the latter put pressure on the war in Gaza and bring back the captives held in Hamas.
Netanyahu underlined his opposition to any agreement which would ultimately leave Hamas in power in Gaza. “Twenty living hostages remain and 30 that fell. I am determined, we are determined to bring them all,” he told journalists before climbing his plane. However, he added: “We are determined to ensure that Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel.”
“This means one thing: to eliminate the military and governing capacities of Hamas. Hamas will not be there,” he said.
An Israeli negotiation team was in Doha this week for indirect discussions with Hamas. Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had accepted the latest cease-fire proposal, which provides for the release, in five distinct stages, of 10 live captives and 18 dead, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, an influx of humanitarian aid to the strip and the release of many Palestinian prisoners currently detained in Israeli prisons.
Hamas gave what it called a “positive” response to the proposal, highlighting its reservations on the temporary nature of the proposed truce and making requests.
Netanyahu’s office called the stipulations of Hamas, concerning the aid mechanisms and the military withdrawal of Israel, “unacceptable”.
Ethnic cleaning: the “end game”
A snack point remains the control by Israel 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 that Israel would use a potential 6-day potential ceasefire to establish the new “humanitarian zone” in the south of the corridor, and that the army would hold almost 70% of the Gaza territory.
Gideon Levy, Israeli columnist for Haaretz, said that Tel Aviv Tribune’s negotiations caused more than a temporary ceasefire, than the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners because “Netanyahu does not want the war”.
While Trump could put pressure on his ally in a permanent agreement, the American president does not seem inclined to get his weight, say the observers.
“The final match is an ethnic cleaning,” said Levy. “Will it be implemented? I have my doubts.
“But they are already preparing the region, and if the world is passive and the United States gives its green light, it could work.”