Forced displacement equals no place for Palestinians in Gaza
JVL Introduction
In this harrowing [and lengthy] report, BT’Selem, Israel’s leading and much maligned (by Israel) Human Rights Organiation, focuses on the reality and impact of displacement as a key aspect of the genocide being carried out by Israel on the people of Gaza. We are reminded of much that it has not been possible to retain as unimagineable horror has piled onto unimaginable horror.
Everyone in Gaza has been displaced an average of six times since October 7th 2023. Often evacuation orders were given sending people to so called “safe zones” such as Al Mawasi in the South only to be bombed there too. It is almost unfathomable to imagine going through this and the impact of such destruction, the loss of your home, all that you have built up throughout your life and the ongoing lack of a safe and secure home even without the risks of death or injury. But for many, death and injury were all too present and following the often unclear evacuation orders provided little if any protection and the process of moving was fraught, often violent, often humiliating and sometimes leading to arrests; others were unable to move anyway.
Now Israel’s exclusion of almost all Palestinians from the just over 50% of the Strip it was supposed to retreat to under the Trump “ceasefire” plan, is getting closer to 60% as it creeps further and further westwards. It is destroying Palestinian homes on “its” side of the (barely visible) yellow line ensuring that there are even fewer places where it would be possible for people to start to rebuild their lives.
(Most Pictures and all videos included are from the original report)
LL
This article was originally published by BT'Selem on Fri 19 Dec 2025. Read the original here.
"No Place Under Heaven": Forced displacement in the Gaza Strip, 2023-2025
“There are no half measures. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total annihilation. ‘You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven’ – there’s no place under heaven.” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, April 2024
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“Forced displacement”? You mean the crime against humanity of ethnic cleansing and elements of genocide .
How desperately confused must be the Jew who sincerely believes that this agonising genocide is for the good of Jews, pointing to the years of suffering and anguish that Jews had once to endure as a justification. How desperately angry must be the Jew who watches this apocalyptic chaos and is forced to confront, as he or she has never had to do, what it means to be Jewish. In a few short years, the Jewish people has lost its timeless image of being the victims of persecution and gained one of being among its greatest perpetrators. Even though I have never be never supported Israel, always spoken firmly against its actions, always expressed my admiration and my hopes for the Palestinian people, always confirmed that my idea of being a Jew is the categorical opposite to the Zionist idea, it is hard not to feel somehow guilty. It’s also hard to know exactly why. Maybe it’s because we who have fought so hard against this genocide have been incapable of stopping it, when as Jews we should have been able to have some influence.
Maybe it’s because we have been over-sensitized to all the attacks we face because we are now so commonly perceived as backing Israel however loudly and often we have made it as clear as we can that we do not. Either way, we have so far failed the Palestinians, and all the help we have tried to give them has offered far too little against a stubborn, cruel, zealous, hate-ridden, shameless, soulless nation that will stop at nothing to become among the world’s greatest mass-murderers, and all in our name. But I think to myself that despite this feeling of hopelessness we mustn’t give way. So long as Palestinians live, we must fight for them and with them. Their extraordinary and continuing courage, resilience and endurance must be our counsel against despair. The Zionists have painful lessons to learn, and we must continue to try and teach them.
Everyone who reads this horrific report should commit themselves to share it with the leaders of their governments and of their human rights organisations, and call for the leaders of the government of Israel and its military to be arrested and tried by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and genocide. If not now, when?