On Tuesday, in an interview aired on Israeli TV station i24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the statement that his government is “allowing” Palestinians to leave Gaza during the imminent military offensive. The offensive is aimed at forcing everyone out of the most populated areas of the Strip, including Gaza City, and driving them into the zone near the border with Egypt.

Netanyahu cynically framed this as an offer of “voluntary migration.” Speaking in a manner that reeked of supremacy, the prime minister said:

Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want. We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.

The fascist leader’s words, delivered in the context of the Israeli military’s plans for the complete control and annexation of Gaza, were part of a strategy endorsed and supported by the imperialist powers with the completely lying rubric of “choice” and “humanitarian” concern. However, masses of people internationally recognize these as euphemisms for genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement on a massive scale.

The new phase of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza involves the occupation of the entire Strip, and it is being discussed as the “final” phase. Earlier this month, the Israeli Security Cabinet formally approved a plan led by Netanyahu to occupy areas of Gaza that they do not currently control. The northern zone around Gaza City is densely populated and, despite relentless bombardment, is considered key to Israel’s plans for “complete control.”

The military operation aims to forcibly relocate all Palestinians—over 1 million people currently confined largely to the central and western parts of Gaza City—into designated “humanitarian cities” in the southern region of Gaza. These areas of relocation, presented by Israeli officials as “safe zones,” are concentration camps where Palestinians will be overcrowded, surveilled and controlled without freedom of movement.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians are already languishing in makeshift tents, overcrowded public institutions and rudimentary facilities lacking essential resources like clean water, adequate food and medical care. The new phase of forced relocation will intensify the humanitarian crisis and is another tactic to uproot Palestinians from their historic homes and territories prior to their final expulsion out of Gaza.

That Israel is actively planning to expel Palestinians from Gaza has been revealed by the disclosure of resettlement arrangements being discussed with countries such as South Sudan. According to multiple news reports citing Israeli and international sources, Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, are in discussions with the government of South Sudan regarding the establishment of camps or “humanitarian cities” intended to receive Palestinians once current military operations in Gaza begin.

These talks, confirmed by individuals familiar with the negotiations, are part of the broader Israeli strategy of mass expulsions to countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the unrecognized state of Somaliland.

Although he did not mention any countries in his comments on Tuesday, Netanyahu explicitly stated his belief that the “appropriate course of action” is to facilitate the population’s departure. Also on Tuesday, the foreign ministry of South Sudan issued a statement categorically denying any formal talks, calling related reports “baseless and not reflective of public policy.”

However, multiple sources, including civil society leaders and diplomatic contacts, told international media that discussions had in fact taken place and that an Israeli delegation was expected to visit South Sudan soon to explore options.

The military objective, as articulated recently by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, is to “totally destroy” Gaza and “make way for Israeli settlers.”

The current plans recall the measures used by Zionist terrorists during the Nakba of 1948, when militia groups launched a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian population. During this episode, roughly 750,000 Palestinians—more than 80 percent of the population within the area that would become Israel—were expelled or fled for their lives.

The Nakba saw over 530 Palestinian villages destroyed and more than 15,000 Palestinians killed in a series of brutal massacres, forced displacements and tactics that included targeted violence and widespread looting carried out by armed Zionist gangs. Many Palestinians fled under threat of death or horror stories, such as the massacre at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948.

The refugees scattered to neighboring countries like Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, where many would live in refugee camps for generations, as well as to other parts of Palestine that came under occupation. This expulsion in 1948 was actively enabled by the imperialist powers in the aftermath of World War II.

The US, along with the backing of Britain and other Western powers, saw in Zionism a bulwark for their geopolitical interests in the Middle East after the carve up of the region after the world war. The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 through the Nakba served the imperialist agenda by cementing a relationship with a settler-colonial regime that could control critical Middle Eastern resources and strategic corridors.

A blatant violation of international law, the creation of the Israeli state on territories inhabited by Palestinians was intended to reinforce US and Western hegemony by fragmenting Arab nationalism and establishing a reliable regional ally. This foundation of violence and dispossession in Palestine set the stage for the decades of brutality, occupation and imperialist intervention that followed.

Following the Nakba, the areas today known as the occupied territories—the Gaza Strip and the West Bank—came under Israeli military and settler control after the 1967 Six-Day War, a pivotal event which was backed by the US. The Gaza Strip and West Bank, home to millions of Palestinians, have been the sites of repeated and ongoing military occupation and relentless settlement expansion.

It was against this legacy of brutality and violence that the uprising of Palestinians on October 7, 2023 took place. This event, which was known about in advance by Israeli and US intelligence, was then used by the Zionist state and its American masters to justify the launching of the genocide which is now culminating in the plan to fully occupy and annex Gaza.

Since 1948, approximately 134,000 Palestinians have been killed across Israel and the occupied territories, as documented by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and other sources. This includes the deaths of thousands during uprisings, such as the First and Second Intifadas, as well as in wars launched by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.

Since October 7, 2023, at least 61,700 Palestinian have been killed in a mass slaughter, thousands of them women and children, with over 154,000 wounded. These figures continue to rise daily as the siege, starvation, bombardments and military incursions persist. The death tolls from starvation have reached at least 235, including many children, while over 1,800 Palestinians have died while attempting to access aid since May 2025.

Directly connected with the latest Gaza occupation plans, Finance Minister Smotrich announced plans to approve the construction of more than 3,000 new Israeli housing units in the West Bank. Smotrich bluntly declared that this move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.”

Smotrich’s announcement demonstrates that the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, in both the West Bank and Gaza—regarded by as an international crime and violation of Palestinian rights—are critical to the future of the Zionist state. This will immediately escalate conflicts across the West Bank and consolidate the apartheid rule enforced by the Israeli government and its fascist squads of settlers.

In sum, Netanyahu’s statement about “allowing” Palestinians to leave Gaza must be understood against this broader historical and political background. The purported “voluntary migration” is part of a genocidal program of forced displacement aimed at redrawing Gaza’s demographic and geographic reality under Israeli and US imperialist designs.

It is a continuation of the Nakba in the 21st century. The militarization of Gaza, the incarceration-like conditions of the so-called humanitarian zones, the escalating death toll and aggressive settlement expansion are part of one policy that is aimed at erasing Palestinians from the world.