‘Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM

July 14, 2025

Emma Graham-Harrison in Tel Aviv for The Guardian

The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert has told the Guardian.

Olmert said Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, and constructing the camp would mark an escalation. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian