Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the military to prepare a closed "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to Israeli and international media cited by rights groups. The plan would initially move roughly 600,000 displaced Palestinians now sheltering in Al-Mawasi into the new zone, subject them to security screening and bar them from leaving. Katz said the long-term goal is to house Gaza’s entire population of more than two million there, while encouraging "voluntary emigration" abroad. Israeli forces would secure the perimeter and Katz is seeking foreign agencies to administer day-to-day operations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting US President Donald Trump in Washington, said Palestinians should have the "freedom of choice" to depart Gaza, while denying any intent at forcible removal. Legal and humanitarian organisations have condemned the proposal. Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard called it “an operational plan for a crime against humanity,” and the rights group Gisha warned that concentrating civilians in a fenced enclosure would amount to forced transfer. UNRWA said there is “nothing humanitarian or humane” in the scheme, which it likened to creating “massive concentration camps.” Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, one of Britain’s most prominent human-rights barristers, publicly described Israel’s overall Gaza campaign as genocide—the first such statement by a senior UK legal figure. Critics argue the plan violates the Fourth Geneva Convention’s ban on mass population transfers and could expose officials to war-crime charges. No country has so far agreed to take Palestinians who might leave under the emigration component of the proposal.