U.S.-backed plan accused of paving the way for Gaza annexation and mass detention

The consequences of the U.S. plan to support the division of the Gaza Strip into green and red zones separated by a yellow military line entail serious dangers, including the actual displacement of Palestinians from their homes and the transformation of large areas of Gaza into closed military zones under the direct control of the Israeli army.

This plan institutionalizes long-term illegal control and de facto forced annexation of the territory. It imposes illegal collective detention on the civilian population, constituting a blatant violation of international law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

Preliminary information indicates that the U.S. plan for the Gaza Strip, currently being formulated through the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), is based on imposing a rigid system of geographic segregation that divides Gaza into population blocks and closed military zones.

Accordingly, more than half of the Gaza Strip is effectively designated as a closed military zone under the direct control of the Israeli army. In this area, strict control and management systems are enforced through severe restrictions on movement, regulation of aid and essential services, and deprivation of fundamental rights. These measures are used as coercive tools to force people to leave their homes and relocate to so-called “safe” areas designated within the same closed zone, without any real option to remain or return.

The first phase of the plan divides the Gaza Strip into a red zone covering 47 percent of the territory, which includes most of the civilian population, and a green zone covering 53 percent, which is under full Israeli military control and is occupied by armed groups created and armed by the Israeli regime. These two areas are separated by a yellow line designated as a military buffer zone, where Israeli forces will apply a shoot-to-kill policy against anyone who approaches or attempts to cross it.

The yellow line, marked by concrete blocks, has not remained fixed but has moved beyond the published maps and, in some areas, advanced more than one kilometer into the Gaza Strip. This line is used to unilaterally redraw military control boundaries, gradually expand areas under direct Israeli control, place additional territory under closed military rule, and severely restrict freedom of movement. This practice entrenches de facto annexation and shatters Gaza’s territorial unity in blatant violation of international law.

This plan coincides with Israeli efforts to impose full control over Gaza’s coastline—designated as a “red zone” in the plan’s map—and to turn it into a closed area under the occupying regime’s direct security and economic domination. This effectively places Gaza’s maritime resources, including fishing waters, gas fields, and existing coastal infrastructure, under the control of the occupiers.

This approach constitutes the illegal seizure and systematic plunder of the resources of an occupied territory. It contradicts the established principle of international law that affirms the permanent sovereignty of peoples over their natural resources, as well as the obligations of an occupying power not to confiscate public or private property and not to exploit the natural resources of occupied territory for its exclusive benefit.

According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, this plan is based on transferring the Palestinian population from the red zone to the green zone through various pressure tactics. This is done by creating a coercive environment in the red zone and conditioning access to relative protection and basic services on relocation to designated areas in the green zone after extensive security screening and checks. This removes any element of genuine consent and places the process squarely within the scope of forcible transfer, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

The plan includes the construction of cities made up of prefabricated container homes in the green zone, each designed to house around 25,000 people within an area of no more than one square kilometer, surrounded by walls and checkpoints. Entry and exit will only be permitted through security screening, effectively turning these locations into densely populated detention camps that impose severe restrictions on residents’ freedom of movement and daily life.

The design of these proposed cities reflects the historical model of ghettos, in which colonial and racist regimes confined specific groups within enclosed areas surrounded by walls and guard posts, with movement and access to resources controlled from the outside—similar to what was seen in Europe during World War II and in other colonial contexts.

This system of enforced spatial segregation does not constitute temporary shelter; rather, it creates enclosed population zones in which entire communities are administered and controlled, instead of being treated as individuals entitled to freedom of movement, residence, and life within their original communities.

Available information indicates that the engineering units responsible for this plan have begun preparing the designs for the first pilot city in Rafah and are awaiting funding to begin its actual implementation.

This plan is based on systematic discrimination against Palestinians, as relocation to what are called temporary cities in the green zone is conditional upon passing security screening determined by Israeli and U.S. authorities. This enables the exclusion of broad categories of people who either “do not meet the requirements,” are deemed to “pose a security risk,” or do not align with the imposed arrangements—placing them instead in areas that are more exposed to siege and danger. As a result, protection and essential services such as housing, food, and healthcare are transformed from universal rights into instruments of selection and coercion, granted or denied based on unilateral security and political assessments.

Life in these temporary cities will be subject to arbitrary security control and externally imposed governance arrangements, with residents having no real choice to accept or reject them and being denied any role in managing their own public affairs. This entrenches a new political and administrative reality in which the future of the Gaza Strip, the identity of its inhabitants, and their right to self-determination in their own land are directly threatened by external interference.

This plan goes far beyond temporary security or humanitarian measures and forms part of a broader strategy aimed at dismantling the territorial and social unity of the Palestinian people.