Former PM Ehud Olmert calls Katz's humanitarian city plan a 'concentration camp'
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert called Defense Minister Israel Katz's "humanitarian city" plan in Gaza a "concentration camp" in an interview with the Guardian on Sunday.
"It is a concentration camp. I am sorry," he said.
Katz recently said that the Defense Ministry would build a new humanitarian city in the Rafah area for at least 600,000 Palestinians.
Anyone who entered would have limitations on their ability to go in and out of the area and would only be allowed to enter after being carefully checked for possessing weapons.
Olmert said that Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, telling the Guardian that constructing the humanitarian city would "mark an escalation."
"If they [Palestinians] will be deported into the new 'humanitarian city,' then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing. It hasn't yet happened," the former prime minister said.
Olmert told the Guardian that he did not consider Israel's current campaign in Gaza as ethnic cleansing, because evacuating civilians to protect them from fighting was legal under international law, and Palestinians returned to areas where operations concluded.
He called government claims that the humanitarian city aimed to protect Palestinian civilians "were not credible."
Additionally, Olmert also called the killing of two Palestinian men, including an American citizen, by Israeli settlers "war crimes."
"Unforgivable. Unacceptable. There are continuous operations organized, orchestrated in the most brutal, criminal manner by a large group."
Olmert described cabinet ministers who support the further expansion of settlements in Gaza and the West Bank as "the enemies from within."
The former prime minister said that he supported the initial campaign against Hamas after the October 7 massacre, but criticized the government for abandoning negotiations for a ceasefire "publicly and in a brutal manner."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
As Waltz faces UN post hearings, an update on the Signal situation that led to his initial ousting
Advertisement Months after the chat was disclosed, questions remain over the controversy, including if federal laws were violated, if classified information was exposed on the commercial messaging app and if anyone else will face consequences. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here's what we know and don't know: Known : Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked. It is not approved for carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the strikes, the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of Signal, specifically that Russia was attempting to hack the app, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak to the press and spoke on the condition of anonymity. One known vulnerability is that a malicious actor, if they have access to a person's phone, can link their own device to the user's Signal — and monitor messages remotely. Advertisement Not known : How frequently the administration and the Defense Department use Signal for sensitive government communications, and whether those on the chat were using unauthorized personal devices to transmit or receive those messages. The department put out an instruction in 2023 restricting what information could be posted on unauthorized and unclassified systems. At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard would not say whether she was accessing the information on her personal phone or government-issued phone, citing an ongoing investigation by the National Security Council. Known : The government has a requirement under the Presidential Records Act to archive all of those planning discussions. Not known : Whether anyone in the group archived the messages as required by law to a government server. The images of the text chain posted by The Atlantic show that the messages were set to disappear in one week. Known : Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon's security protocols — known in the IT industry as a 'dirty' internet line — set up in his office to use Signal on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line have told The Associated Press. Other Pentagon offices have used them, particularly if there's a need to monitor information or websites that would otherwise be blocked. The biggest advantage of using such a line is that the user would not show up as an IP address assigned to the Defense Department — essentially the user is masked, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with military network security. Advertisement Not known : If use of the line left any Defense-related materials more vulnerable than they would have been on a Pentagon secure line. Known : The chat group included 18 members, including Jeffrey Goldberg, top editor of The Atlantic. The group, called 'Houthi PC Small Group,' likely for Houthi 'principals committee' — was comprised of Trump's senior-most advisers on national security, including Gabbard, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The National Security Council said the text chain 'appears to be authentic.' Not known : How Goldberg got added. Waltz said he built the message chain and didn't know how Goldberg ended up on the chat. He called it a mistake. Known : Just hours before the attack on the Houthis in Yemen began, Hegseth shared details on the timing, targets, weapons and sequence of strikes that would take place. Not known : Whether the information was classified. Gabbard, Ratcliffe and the White House have all said it was not classified, and Hegseth said the same in a post on social media. Democrats said that strains credulity. Known : Hegseth has adamantly denied that 'war plans' were texted on Signal, something current and former U.S. officials called 'semantics.' War plans carry a specific meaning. They often refer to the numbered and highly classified planning documents — sometimes thousands of pages long — that would inform U.S. decisions in case of a major conflict. But the information Hegseth did post — specific attack details selecting human and weapons storage targets — was a subset of those plans and was likely informed by the same classified intelligence. Posting those details to an unclassified app risked tipping off adversaries of the pending attack and could have put U.S. service members at risk, multiple U.S. officials said. Advertisement Sharing that information on a commercial app like Signal in advance of a strike 'would be a violation of everything that we're about,' said former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who served under Democratic President Barack Obama. Not known : If anyone outside the messaging group got access to the Signal texts. Known : Hegseth began cracking down on unauthorized leaks of information inside the Defense Department, and his chief of staff issued a memo on March 21 saying the Pentagon would use polygraph tests to determine the sources of recent leaks and prosecute them. Not known : Whether Hegseth will take responsibility for the unauthorized release of national defense information regarding the attack plans on the Houthis. Trump in March bristled at a suggestion that Hegseth should step down, saying 'He's doing a great job. He had nothing to do with it.' Known : In April, Dan Caldwell, a senior Hegseth adviser who in the Signal chat had been designated as the secretary's point person, was Not known : If any others affiliated with the Signal situation will face reprisals. Known : Also in April, Hegseth was forced to defend himself against a second assertion that he shared classified material through an unapproved and unsecured network, this time taking airstrike information from a military communications channel and sharing it in a Signal chat with his wife, his brother and others. A person familiar with the chat confirmed to The AP that Hegseth pulled the information — such as launch times and bomb drop times of U.S. warplanes about to strike Houthi targets in Yemen — he posted in the chat from a secure communications channel used by U.S. Central Command. Advertisement Not known : If that's the extent of Hegseth's Signal usage. Known : The Pentagon's watchdog has begun looking into Hegseth's use of Signal, and also whether any of Hegseth's aides were asked to delete Signal messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a reporter. Not known : What the inspector general will find, or what will be done as a result of those findings.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
France's Macron withdraws from UN Palestinian state recognition conference
The conference was intended to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas War concludes, and to prepare for the gradual recognition of a Palestinian state. French President Emmanuel Macron is no longer expected to attend the upcoming UN conference on the recognition of a Palestinian state, according to sources on Tuesday. Macron encountered strong opposition from the British and Canadian governments, who warned that a unilateral French recognition of a Palestinian state could undermine international coordination efforts with Israel and exacerbate divisions, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the matter. Macron, who had intended to lead the conference along with Saudi Arabia, had reportedly considered announcing France's official recognition of a Palestinian state, a claim that France has firmly denied. The conference was originally supposed to take place in New York between June 17-20. The conference was intended to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas War concludes, and to prepare for the gradual recognition of a Palestinian state. However, this was delayed due to the Israel-Iran War. Additionally, the US applied behind-the-scenes pressure, which led to the postponement of the original conference date, according to sources speaking to Walla. A new date for the conference was set for July 28, but without Macron's participation. Paris's leading politicians are working to lower expectations with officials clarifying that France is not abandoning the two-state solution, but does not intend to act unilaterally without broad international consensus. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot mentioned this week that "the goal is to outline post-war Gaza and prepare for France's and other countries' recognition of a Palestinian state." Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
Wall Street Journal
2 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Advised Zelensky to Take the Fight to Russia, Senior Ukrainian Official Says
KYIV, Ukraine—President Trump counseled Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to take the war to Russia and asked whether Kyiv was able to hit Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the exchange. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday offered a different account of the call between the two leaders on July 4. Asked about it, Leavitt said Trump 'was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing.' She said he was 'working tirelessly' to stop the war.
