Politics

A ‘concentration camp’ in Gaza will put Egypt in a tough spot

For Benjamin Netanyahu, it would be a ‘humanitarian zone’. For most countries, it would be a war crime. For Egypt, it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Jack Guez/AFP

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on July 17, 2025.

A ‘concentration camp’ in Gaza will put Egypt in a tough spot

Amr Emam

last update on 21 Jul 2025

Israel’s plan to establish a “concentration camp” for 600,000 Palestinians in southern Gaza causes deep concern in Egypt. If implemented, it would put yet more pressure on the already-strained relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv.

Euphemistically called a “humanitarian city” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed it differently, calling it a “concentration camp,” while Israeli lawyers have said it would be illegal, and Israel’s Chief-of-Staff Gen. Eyal Zamir has said it would be “unworkable”.

Advocates propose to construct the camp on the ruins of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which has been effectively razed to the ground by Israel’s brutal war. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans already into a humanitarian zone in Mawasi in the south-west, near the Mediterranean Sea and the Egyptian border, will be forced into the camp after being screened.

Katz, who initially proposed the camp’s construction earlier this month, hopes to lead Gaza’s other 1.4 million residents into this heavily guarded zone later. Once in, Gazans would not be allowed to leave, unless to go abroad, under what the Israeli leadership menacingly calls “voluntary migration”.

Amir Cohen/Reuters — Flares fired by Israel Defence Forces light the sky above Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025.

For many, the camp would be the epitome of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, since it would entail the mass forcible transfer of a large population, subsequently depriving them of physical liberties, let alone the ethics of cramming 600,000 people into a camp measuring just 64 square kilometres.

Cleansing Gaza

The camp, or its proposal, at least finally clarifies Netanyahu’s plan for ‘the day after’ the war in Gaza. He wants to honour his supporter and benefactor, Donald Trump, by clearing the way—literally—for the US president’s “Mediterranean riviera” dream to become a reality. Netanyahu has even said that he would only end the war in Gaza to implement Trump’s plan.

The camp would be the epitome of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, entailing the mass forcible transfer of a large population

To do so, Gaza essentially needs to be emptied of Gazans. Meeting Trump at the White House on 7 July, Netanyahu said his government was close to gaining agreement from countries willing to receive Gaza refugees, but did not name them.

Some have already left for other countries with help from the Israelis, who control almost 75% of the Gaza Strip, where more than 92% of residential buildings have been destroyed. Living in the open, forced to keep moving, with no food, no water, and no basic necessities, at constant risk of being bombed, who would not want to leave, given the chance to? It is a human instinct. And it is far from "voluntary".

Perilous undertaking

Egypt has been warily watching from across the border, conscious of the original Israeli plan to displace Gaza's population into Sinai—a "red line" for the Egyptian government. In talks with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on 16 July, Egypt's foreign minister reiterated that stance. Yet some feel that Israel is yet to take Egypt's position seriously.

In October 2023, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expressed fears that the displacement of Gaza's population into Sinai would threaten the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, and in March this year, he warned that any forced displacement of Gazans into Egypt would be a treaty violation.

Yet displacing Gazans into Egypt is still a plan backed by some of Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners who want to occupy Gaza and permanently settle it. That puts Egypt in a bind. Despite increasing troop numbers in Sinai, Egypt cannot prevent the surge of hundreds of thousands of starving and scared Palestinians into Egypt if the door is opened.

Warding off trouble

Egyptian troops guarding the border would find it hard to fire at those running toward them for safety, but cannot let their country be flooded either. Sisi does not want to go down in history as the Egyptian president who ordered his troops to shoot at fellow Arabs, but nor does he want to be the one who let the Palestinian statehood dream wither, and Egypt believes that the depopulation of Gaza will be followed by a similar scenario in the occupied West Bank.

Displacing Gazans into Egypt is still backed by Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners who want to permanently settle Gaza

Since it was signed, Egypt has demonstrated its commitment to the terms of the peace treaty with Israel on numerous occasions, and has been working with Qatar since October 2023 to put an end to the war in Gaza in a deal that brings the remaining Israeli hostages home, and prevents Palestinians' mass displacement.

Egypt put together a Gaza reconstruction plan, hopes to organise a conference to rally the international community behind the rebuilding effort, and is talking to the Qataris and Americans about ways to get more aid into Gaza. But the first thing that is needed is a ceasefire, before anyone can start to make Gaza fit for life again. Doing so is the best guarantee against the displacement of its people.

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