The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated that the Israeli project in the Gaza Strip has reached its most revealing peak, as Israel no longer conceals its intentions regarding its plan to displace Palestinians from their homeland. Rather, it has begun to announce it openly and in official discourse at the highest levels, and is implementing it through a series of field and institutional measures that reframe the crime and present it as “voluntary migration.” It is exploiting the complete international silence that has provided it with a safe environment to continue committing the crime and achieve this level of impunity without deterrence or accountability.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated in a press release today that Israel is moving forward with the final phase of its crime and original goal: the mass expulsion of Palestinians outside Palestine, specifically outside the Gaza Strip. This comes after spending a year and a half committing genocidal crimes, including the killing and wounding of hundreds of thousands, the obliteration of entire cities, the near-total destruction of the Strip, the systematic dismantling of living conditions there, and the forced and systematic displacement of its population within its borders, as part of a plan aimed at eliminating the Palestinian community as an entity and existence.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor noted that the plans to forcibly displace Palestinians represent a direct extension of Israel's decades-long, systematic colonial-settler project, based on the erasure of Palestinian existence and the seizure of land. It warned that what distinguishes this phase from previous ones is that it is taking on a more dangerous and widespread character, targeting 2.3 million people who have been subjected to comprehensive genocide and deprived of the most basic rights, under systematic coercive conditions characterized by extreme cruelty and the complete deprivation of the minimum living conditions, in a deliberate attempt to push them towards departure as their only option for survival.

It pointed out that while Israel has succeeded in undermining the basic principles of international law and the rules of targeting and protection, it is now reimposing its narrative, relying on its excess power and the international community’s abandonment of its legal and moral obligations, to market the crime of mass expulsion of Palestinians as “voluntary migration,” in a blatant attempt to redefine ethnic cleansing and forced displacement using false terms such as “humanitarian considerations” and “individual choice,” despite its clear contradiction with the facts on the ground and the established legal provisions of international law that regulate this type of crime.

It stressed that forced displacement is a separate crime under international law, which involves the expulsion of persons from areas where they are lawfully present, using force or the threat thereof, or through other coercive means, without recognized legal justification.

It explained that coercion in this context is not limited to the use of direct military force, but also includes the creation of a coercive environment that makes remaining practically impossible or poses a real threat to life, dignity, or livelihood. This coercive environment includes multiple forms, such as fear of violence, persecution, detention, intimidation, starvation, or any other coercive circumstances that effectively strip individuals of their free will and force them to leave.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on all states to hold accountable those complicit and complicit with Israel in committing these crimes, most notably the United States and other states that provide Israel with any form of support or assistance related to the commission of these crimes, including providing aid and engaging in contractual relations in the military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, media, economic, and other fields that contribute to the continuation of these crimes.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor emphasized that the continuation of these crimes would not have occurred without Israel's illegal presence on Palestinian land, which constitutes the structural root of all cycles of violence, oppression, and destruction. It emphasized that any genuine response to the escalating crisis in the Gaza Strip cannot succeed unless it begins by removing this illegal colonial presence, as the original source of all violations, and guaranteeing the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, freely and independently, on their entire national territory. It considered that this is the way to stop the ongoing crime of genocide, halt individual and collective forced displacement schemes, dismantle the apartheid system, and build a serious path towards justice, accountability, and the preservation of human dignity.