Front Burner

Plan for Gaza decried as 'concentration camp'

Israel’s defence minister has asked the military to draw up plans for what he describes as a “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza. Critics call it a concentration camp.
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins.
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, told journalists earlier this month that he has instructed the military to draw up plans for a camp in southern Gaza, which would eventually house the entire population of the strip. According to Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Katz said residents would not be allowed to leave once they entered — although he and other Israeli officials are still talking about plans to deport, or "voluntarily relocate," Gazan civilians.

While Katz described this as a "humanitarian city," critics — including a former Israeli prime minister — have decried the plan as a "concentration camp."

Today, we'll first hear from a man in the area of southern Gaza from which people would theoretically be moved into this proposed camp. Then we'll speak to Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based pollster and political analyst, and author of the recent book The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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