Human rights organizations to Israeli officials: Cancel the displacement orders issued by the Israeli military to residents of Gaza City, immediately
On 16 September 2025, Gisha, Adalah, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Adalah, and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI), sent an urgent letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and COGAT Major General Ghassan Alian.
In their letter, the organizations demanded the immediate cancellation of the displacement orders issued by the Israeli military to residents of Gaza City. They emphasized that these orders are manifestly illegal and are being implemented in an area where famine has already been declared. The orders target a population that is exhausted, starving, and deeply traumatized, with nowhere to go and no safe place to seek shelter.
The orders seek to compel approximately one million residents to squeeze into a severely overcrowded area in the southern Gaza Strip, in another fatal blow to the civilian population. According to reports, following criticism from the Military Advocate General, the so-called “humanitarian area” was expanded on 12 September from less than 12 percent to about 21 percent of the territory. However, the organizations stressed that Israel is not guaranteeing adequate living conditions there. Thousands of people have already been killed in Israeli airstrikes while in these areas or while being displaced from one location to another as a result of previous displacement orders.
In parallel, the Israeli military has reportedly begun its incursion deeper into Gaza, following intense airstrikes throughout the night, and its destruction over recent days of dozens of residential towers, schools, as well as other civilian infrastructure in the city. Dozens of innocent people – many of them children – have been killed daily in attacks. The area designated for relocation is extremely overcrowded and lacks even minimal basic services, leaving residents to face a horrifying choice: death by bombardment or forced transfer to a place where conditions are inhumane.
The letter emphasized that these orders violate international law and do not stem from any legitimate military necessity. Therefore, the army’s claim that they were issued to “warn” and “protect” the population cannot be accepted. According to the organizations, the orders amount to forcible transfer – a war crime and a crime against humanity – and even constitute a step toward ethnic cleansing, especially in light of statements by government officials expressing intentions for permanent Israeli presence in Gaza.
The organizations wrote: “Forcible transfer of a protected population, whether through use of force, threat of force and intimidation, or by creating living conditions that are unfit for human existence, including starvation, violates international humanitarian law. Each of the above measures constitute, in and of themselves, a violation of the law.”
The organizations also warned that there is an absolute prohibition on targeting civilians, humanitarian personnel, and the infrastructure on which they depend. They concluded their letter by calling on the Israeli authorities to: immediately cancel the displacement orders; allow displaced persons to return to their homes; end the systematic destruction being wrought, and; significantly expand access to humanitarian aid throughout the entire Strip, including northern Gaza.
To the full letter, click here.
Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/FLASH90
