The “Humanitarian City”: Israel’s new pretext for colonization in Gaza

Whether under the guise of humanitarian relief or outright military expansion, the impact on the people of Gaza remains unchanged: displacement, dispossession, and further subjugation.

According to a report by Middle East Monitor, the so-called “humanitarian city” is not a gesture of compassion, but another form of control amid the international community’s silence and inaction. The world is too preoccupied with managing the evolving dynamics of human rights discourse to pay attention to the actual erosion of human rights on the ground.

Human rights, it appears, are no longer truly rights. In the case of Gaza, it is Israel that determines the violations, and the international community that decides how best to preserve its own diplomatic image—while Palestinians are tortured, displaced, starved, and killed.

Palestinians are made to serve a humanitarian model, rather than benefit from one. So when the Israeli military proposes further occupation of Gaza lands as an “alternative” to mass internment camps, what expectations can there be? None but more of the same.

Israeli war minister Yisrael Katz recently declared that the military has taken control of 70% of Gaza's territory. If Israel expands its occupation and denies Palestinians the right to return to their homes, the result will resemble internment more extreme than Gaza’s previous status as an open-air prison.

Whether the plan for a “humanitarian city” proceeds, or Israel simply opts for deeper colonization—or both—the international community is effectively witnessing and evaluating the mass forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.

This is not new. It mirrors the 1948 Nakba, when Zionist forces expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Today’s response is little different: muted objections, symbolic statements, and no serious action.

Recently, the EU Commissioner for Equality, the Commissioner for Crisis Management, and foreign ministers from 30 countries released a joint statement opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The statement said: “Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law. We strongly oppose any step that could lead to territorial or demographic changes in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

But rhetoric aside, what are these nations actually doing to stop Israel’s actions? The answer: nothing.

Permanent forced displacement was already a violation long before the Gaza genocide began. Yet the world’s diplomats tolerated it so long as the UN’s UNRWA could be relied upon to handle the fallout and provide bare minimum support.

In truth, the international community is not genuinely opposed to displacement or demographic engineering—if it were, Palestinians would not have remained refugees since 1948.

What truly concerns the international community is its own declining relevance. And the more it avoids confronting Israel or holding it accountable, the faster that relevance fades.

Empty statements, continued trade deals, and passive observation do not protect Palestinians. They only expose the international order’s moral and political bankruptcy.

No matter what course Israel takes— “humanitarian city” or military colonization—Palestinians will continue to be displaced in full view of the world. And the international community will continue to wring its hands over the collapse of a humanitarian model it helped erode, mourning its own fading influence rather than the lives it failed to defend.