Palestinians in Gaza Have Less Space Than Detainees in Guantanamo Bay

After 21 months of continuous “Israeli” assault, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are confined to less than 15% of the enclave, i.e. no more than 55 km². Approximately 2.3 million people are crammed into suffocating conditions, each with less space than that allocated to detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

The population is trapped in this narrow space under constant bombardment and blockade, deprived of water, food, shelter, and healthcare, and effectively barred from returning to their destroyed or restricted areas of origin. This is part of a deliberate policy that reflects a genocidal process by “Israel” to uproot the people and erase their physical and demographic presence through mass killing, forced displacement, starvation, and systematic destruction of life.

As the “Israeli” genocide enters its twenty-second month, the reality on the ground is no longer one of mere bombing and killing, but of a comprehensive process of erasure of the Gaza Strip. Residents are now treated as detainees in a mass detention facility, confined to a stifling area of no more than 55 km², under strict military surveillance and direct targeting. This follows “Israel”’s conversion of approximately 85% of the enclave into restricted zones through evacuation orders or unlawful military control.

Such measures form a deliberate policy to erase the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip by uprooting residents, undermining human life, and dismantling the Strip’s social and geographical structure in a systematic pattern of crimes that, taken together, constitute an act of genocide under international law.

Residents live in a confined and devastated area, targeted around the clock and deprived of even the most basic services, under conditions of extreme overcrowding. The average population density is around 40,000 people per km², while the al-Mawasi area exceeds 47,000 people per km², a density unmatched in any other populated area on Earth.

These are not abstract figures, but the contours of an ongoing “Israeli” crime committed in broad daylight and full view of the world. Residents are forcibly isolated and repeatedly expelled from their original areas, and then from their displacement areas to what the occupying power calls “humanitarian and safe zones,” only to find that each time these zones are nothing but new death traps.

All families in the Gaza Strip have been forced to relocate, with many displaced five, six, or even ten times or more, in a scene that reflects a systematic and ongoing policy of collective pursuit in search of safety that does not exist.

No area in the Gaza Strip is safe. There is no place today that can serve as a haven or even a temporary shelter. Electricity, drinking water, healthcare, and food are all unavailable. Sewage floods the alleys, while disease, epidemics, rodents, insects, and hunger spread, and every aspect of life collapses. In reality, people are left with nothing but the terrifying and coercive option of endless displacement, amid relentless psychological and physical suffering and deep daily despair.

Confining the population between bombing, hunger, and disease on one hand, and preventing them from returning to or even remaining near their destroyed homes on the other, makes it clear that the measures imposed in the Gaza Strip are not a temporary emergency displacement, but part of a permanent and premeditated policy of forced displacement.

This policy aims to bring about a comprehensive demographic transformation in the enclave by depopulating it, placing it under full military control, and encircling it with an unprecedented blockade. In this context, displacement is not a byproduct of war, but a strategic objective.

Data documented by Euro-Med Monitor up to early July indicates that “Israel” has destroyed over 92% of homes, fully or partially demolished more than 80% of schools and 90% of hospitals, and completely destroyed all universities in the Gaza Strip.

Entire neighbourhoods, cities, villages, and camps have been erased from the map—along with their homes, streets, institutions, markets, mosques, and even memories. They were physically removed from existence in a manner that aims to eliminate any prospect of return, with “Israeli” forces even clearing the rubble and transferring it into “Israel” to ensure Palestinians cannot return by any means.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the individual or mass forcible transfers of civilians from occupied territories unless “the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.” The article also states that the population transferred in this way must be “transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased.”

Furthermore, the article states that “the occupying power undertaking such transfers or evacuations shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation is provided to receive the protected persons, that the removals are effected in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and that members of the same family are not separated.”

In the case of the Gaza Strip, however, the large-scale displacement operations are carried out systematically, without any urgent military necessity and without providing protection, shelter, or the possibility of return. This constitutes a grave violation of the Convention and amounts to a war crime under international humanitarian and criminal law.

When carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, such displacement meets the threshold of a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

More gravely, when mass displacement is paired with mass killing, the deliberate denial of food, water, shelter, medical care, and return, and public calls to erase Gaza and uproot its people, there is no doubt that “Israel” is deliberately imposing life-destroying conditions with the intent to destroy a protected group as such. This meets the definition of genocide under international law.

The pattern of forced evacuation orders, widespread killings, destruction, and the deliberate use of starvation are all integral parts of an “Israeli” plan clearly advancing toward its final objective: the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their land, particularly beyond the Gaza Strip.

This follows more than 20 months of genocidal crimes, including the killing and wounding of over 200,000 civilians, the destruction of entire towns, the near-total collapse of Gaza’s infrastructure, the eradication of basic living conditions, and systematic internal displacement. All of this has taken place within a broader effort to eliminate the Palestinian community as an entity and existence.

The forced displacement of Palestinians is a direct extension of “Israel”’s decades-long settler-colonial project, rooted in the erasure of Palestinian existence and the seizure of their land. What sets this phase apart is its unprecedented scale and severity, demonstrated by the comprehensive targeting of all 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023 through genocide and the denial of people’s most basic human rights. The conditions of extreme coercion and deprivation forced upon the Palestinian people represent a deliberate effort to push them out of their homeland, not by choice but as a condition for their very survival. This stands as one of the most blatant cases of planned mass displacement in modern history.

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Euro-Med Monitor urges all states to recognise that what the people of the Gaza Strip are facing is not evacuation, but the systematic erasure of an entire people. It is not enough to merely acknowledge or condemn these crimes; states must stand firmly between the people of Gaza and the completion of the genocide, to protect them from annihilation and to ensure their right to remain on their land with dignity.

All states, both individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal responsibilities by taking urgent action to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip, through implementing effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians; ensuring “Israel”’s compliance with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice; holding “Israel” accountable for all crimes against the Palestinians in the Strip; and providing redress to victims as per international law.

The international community must also impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on “Israel” for its systematic and grave violations of international law. These sanctions should include an arms embargo; an end to all political, financial, and military support; freezing the assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; imposing travel ban on these officials; suspending the operations of “Israeli” military and security industries companies in international markets; banning involved companies’ access to banking services; and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that provide “Israel” with economic benefits that enable its continued crimes.

Euro-Med Monitor calls for an immediate and comprehensive reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip, with priority given to rebuilding homes, infrastructure, and health and education facilities, as well as restoring the foundations of community and economic life. This is essential to re-establish a dignified standard of living for the population, provide compensation for the immense losses endured, and address the consequences of the systematic destruction inflicted by ongoing Israeli attacks.

States must urgently push for the restoration of humanitarian access and the lifting of the illegal blockade, as this is the only way to stop the accelerating humanitarian deterioration and ensure the entry of aid, given the imminent threat of famine.

The establishment of safe humanitarian corridors under UN supervision is vital to ensure the delivery of food, medicine, and fuel to all areas of the Strip, with independent international monitors deployed to verify compliance.

Countries with universal jurisdiction courts must issue arrest warrants for “Israeli” political and military leaders involved in the ongoing genocide and initiate legal proceedings to fulfil their international legal obligation to prosecute serious crimes and combat impunity. They must also hold accountable their citizens found to have committed violations against Palestinians, in line with their national and international legal obligations and within their territorial or personal jurisdiction.

Furthermore, the International Criminal Court (ICC) must expedite its investigations and issue arrest warrants for every “Israeli” official involved in international crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. These crimes must be formally recognised and treated as acts of genocide. State parties to the Rome Statute are reminded of their legal obligation to fully cooperate with the Court, ensure the implementation of the arrest warrants, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

(Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor)