The American plan in Gaza: a forced ghetto and mass imprisonment

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has revealed alarming details regarding the US plan to divide the Gaza Strip, a plan involving Western and Arab countries and institutions. The plan includes measures aimed at transforming Gaza into a forced ghetto, collective imprisonment, land annexation, and resource plunder.

The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor warned of the consequences of the US plan to divide the Gaza Strip into green and red zones separated by a yellow military line, citing the grave risks involved. These risks include imposing arrangements that could effectively lead to the displacement of Palestinians from their original homes and the transformation of large parts of the Strip into closed military zones under the direct control of the Israeli army.

The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor explained that this would entrench a long-term, illegal control and de facto annexation of territory by force, imposing forms of unlawful collective imprisonment of the civilian population, in clear violation of international law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated in a press release on Tuesday that it had obtained preliminary information regarding the US plan for the Gaza Strip, which is being developed through the US Civil-Military Coordination Center. The plan is based on establishing a strict geographical separation system that divides the Strip into population blocks and closed military zones. According to this information, more than half of the Strip’s area would effectively be placed within a closed military zone under the direct control of the Israeli army. Within this zone, strict military control and administration systems would be established, imposing a coercive environment that restricts movement, controls aid and basic services, and denies a range of fundamental rights. All of these measures would be used as tools of pressure to force residents to leave their original homes and relocate to specific areas designated as “safe” within this closed military zone, without giving them a genuine option to remain or return to their homes.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that the first phase of the plan is based on dividing the Gaza Strip into a red zone of 47%, which includes the vast majority of the civilian population, and a green zone of 53%, which is under full Israeli military control and in which armed groups formed and armed by Israel are spread. A yellow line will separate the two zones, which will be treated as a military field boundary, where Israeli forces will adopt a policy of shooting to kill anyone who tries to cross it or approach it.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned that the plan intersects with Israeli efforts to impose complete control over the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean coastline, designated in the plan as the “red zone,” and transform it into a closed area subject to direct Israeli security and economic domination. This effectively places control over the Strip’s maritime resources, including fishing areas, gas fields, and existing and potential coastal infrastructure. The Monitor emphasized that this approach constitutes an illegal seizure and systematic plundering of the resources of an occupied territory. It contradicts the established principle in international law regarding the permanent sovereignty of peoples over their natural resources, and the obligations of the occupying power not to seize public or private property and not to exploit the natural resources of the occupied territory for its exclusive benefit, especially when this is done within the framework of long-term arrangements that undermine the Palestinian people’s right to manage their own resources and maritime domain.