Former Israeli leader says planned ‘humanitarian city' in Gaza would be a ‘concentration camp'
Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week he had told the military to advance plans for the zone, which would eventually contain the entire population of Gaza. The area would be built on the ruins of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, and once Palestinians enter the zone, they would not be allowed to leave. Katz also vowed to implement a plan for the emigration of Palestinians from Gaza.
'It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,' Olmert told The Guardian newspaper on Sunday. 'If they (Palestinians) will be deported into the new 'humanitarian city', then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing.'
CNN has reached out to the Prime Minister's Office for comment.
Olmert has previously blasted the conduct of the Israeli military in Gaza and the country's political leadership. In May, he said he could no longer defend Israel against accusations of war crimes. 'What is it if not a war crime?' he asked rhetorically in an interview with CNN. He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right members of his government are 'committing actions which can't be interpreted any other way.'
More than 58,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The latest comments from Olmert, who served as Israel's prime minister from 2006-2009, go much further in criticizing the country's intentions in Gaza, however, especially since comparisons to Nazi concentration camps in Israel is considered virtually unthinkable. But Olmert said it was the 'inevitable interpretation' of the plans.
'When they build a camp where they (plan to) 'clean' more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this (is that) it is not to save (Palestinians). It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away,' Olmert told the Guardian.
Katz's plans for what he dubbed the 'humanitarian city' were discussed at a meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday evening, according to a source familiar with the matter. But after Israeli news outlets reported that it would take months to build the zone and billions of dollars, the source said Netanyahu asked to make its establishment shorter and less expensive.
Yair Lapid, the head of Israel's opposition, blasted the plans as an attempt by Netanyahu to let his far-right government partners 'run wild with extreme fantasies just to preserve his coalition.' In a statement on social media, Lapid called to 'end the war and bring back the hostages.'
Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, told CNN last week that Katz's plan amounts to the forcible transfer of a population in preparation for deportation. Both of these are war crimes, Sfard said.
'If they are done on a massive scale – whole communities – they can amount to crimes against humanity,' Sfard added, dismissing the notion that any departure from Gaza could be considered voluntary.
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A Pentagon budget document states that the U.S. military has been firing AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM) in the course of recent operations in or around the Middle East. If confirmed, it would be the first time these missiles have been employed in combat. Currently, U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers are the only aircraft known to be cleared to employ AGM-158Cs operationally. Efforts are underway to integrate LRASM onto the B and C variants, at least, of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as well as Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, F-15EX Eagle IIs, and F-16C/D Vipers. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol planes are also in line to be able to employ the missiles in the future. 'Funds are required for the replacement of Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) C-3 All Up Rounds (AURS) expended in support of the DOD response to the situation in Israel,' according to a reprogramming document dated May 22, 2025, but that was only posted online recently. 'This action does not change the purpose for which the funds were originally appropriated. This is a congressional special interest item. This is an emergency budget requirement.' By law, the U.S. military must formally seek approval from Congress to reallocate funding from one part of its budget to another. This particular reprogramming action also asks to shift money around to purchase AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block IB anti-ballistic missile interceptors, GBU-53/B StormBreaker precision-guided glide bombs (also known as Small Diameter Bomb IIs, or SDB IIs), and 5-inch naval gun rounds. It supports a number of other ancillary funding requirements, as well. In total, 'this reprogramming action transfers $783.296 million from Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide, 24/25 appropriation, made available by division A of Public Law 118-50, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024, to the specific appropriations necessary to execute funding provided for U.S. operations conducted in response to the situation in Israel,' the document explains. 'This reprogramming addresses the increased, unfunded costs incurred by DoD within the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) region in responding to the situation in Israel or to hostile actions in the region as a direct result of the situation in Israel. This reprogramming action specifically excludes requirements related to actions taken in defense of Israel during attacks by Iran in coordination with and at the request of Israel, in order to defend against attacks on Israeli territory, personnel, or vital assets.' Based on the stipulations above, the expenditures noted in the reprogramming action would have come, at least in part, in the course of U.S. operations against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. On-and-off since October 2023, the Houthis have been targeting foreign warships and commercial vessels in and around the Red Sea, as well as launching attacks at Israel, ostensibly in response to that country's intervention into the Gaza Strip. The U.S. government and the Houthis agreed to a ceasefire in May. U.S. forces are known to have employed AIM-120s, AIM-9s, GBU-53/Bs, and 5-inch naval guns against incoming Houthi missiles and drones. American warships have also fired SM-3 Block IBs in the broader context of defending Israel in the past year, including against Iranian threats. In addition, Navy Super Hornets launched from carriers in the region have been particularly active in the course of the operations. The U.S. military aircraft and warships have also used a slate of other munitions in combat operations in the Middle East since October 2023. However, the May reprogramming document is the first indication that AGM-158Cs have been expended. Restoring freedom of navigation#HouthisAreTerrorists — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 23, 2025 'To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of the use and application of specific weapons platforms in past, present or future operations,' a U.S. defense official told TWZ when asked for more information about the apparent use of LRASMs. 'We are very deliberate in our operational approach but will not reveal specifics about what we've done in past operations.' TWZ also reached out to the U.S. Navy, the service that manages the LRASM program, which redirected us to CENTCOM. What targets LRASMs would have even been employed against in recent U.S. operations in the Middle East is not clear. The Houthis operate only small watercraft, and Iran has not acknowledged any losses of major naval vessels. Other Iranian-backed proxy groups and terrorist organizations in the region that American forces could have targeted do not have maritime assets to speak of. In March, Saudi Arabian outlet Al Hadath did report, and later retracted, claims that U.S. forces had sunk the Iranian spy ship Zagros. U.S. and Iranian officials subsequently denied that report, and no evidence to the contrary has emerged since then. A U.S. defense official denied social media chatter about the targeting of Iran's Zagros ship. The official told the @dcexaminer, "it is pier side in Bandar Abbas, [Iran]." — Mike Brest (@MikeBrestDC) March 18, 2025 Update: The airstrikes in Gaza have continued overnight. At least 5 senior Hamas officials were eliminated. The IDF has sent warnings to evacuate fighting zones. Hamas is reporting hundreds of Iran, no confirmation on Zagros ship story and bizarre that even… — Emily Schrader – אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) March 18, 2025 AGM-158Cs may also have been employed against targets along the shore. We know Houthi air defenses presented risks to U.S. aircraft, which appeared to prompt an increased use of standoff munitions and stealthy platforms during a surge in operations earlier this year. LRASM would have offered a particularly capable standoff weapon. However, the extent of the AGM-158C's land-attack capabilities is unclear. The missile is designed to use a GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance package to get to a target area before switching over to a passive infrared seeker. The seeker then searches for targets and autonomously categorizes them using pre-programmed parameters that are stored in its built-in maritime-centric threat database. The upgraded C-3 variant of the missile was originally set to feature an explicit land-attack capability, but those plans were said to have been axed in 2023. The new version will have roughly double the range of the current standard C-1 type (around 600 miles versus 200-300 miles based on available information) and other improvements. The specific mention of the C-3 variant in the reprogramming action is itself curious since that version has not been expected to enter operational service until next year at the earliest. There have been no other indications of an early fielding. It is possible that text of the reprogramming document is in error in one or more ways. For one, the mention of the C-3 version rather than the current standard C-1 could be incorrect. In addition, reallocated funding for the purchase of any variant of the LRASM could be intended to backfill the expenditure of other older munitions. This is something that has been seen in other reprogramming actions in the past, including ones intended to help replenish stockpiles following transfers of materiel to Ukraine. 'Funds are required for the procurement of Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles as one of the current Air Force replacements for High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort to counter Russian aggression,' a separate reprogramming action dated August 13, 2024, says, as one example. 'This action does not change the purpose for which the funds were originally appropriated. This is a congressional special interest item. This is an emergency budget requirement.' With this in mind, notably absent from the May reprogramming document is any talk of making up for Navy expenditures of AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) cruise missiles. SLAM-ERs were employed against the Houthis earlier this year, but the U.S. military does not appear to have procured any new stocks of these munitions for its own use in years. LRASMs might be one option for replacing those missiles going forward. 1/ Aside from the launch of F/A-18E/Fs armed with JSOW C/C-1s, the video also shows F/A-18Es armed with SLAM-ER ATAs parked on the fligh deck. — Guy Plopsky (@GuyPlopsky) March 16, 2025 The AGM-158C entry in the programming document could also just be completely inaccurate and be meant to refer to something else entirely. The LRASM is notably derived from the AGM-158 Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), a land attack cruise missile that has been employed in past combat operations in the Middle East. At the same time, if there was an error, especially a major one, in the language of the reprogramming action, one would imagine that it would be possible to say so, even if more specific details could not be provided for operational security reasons. For now, it remains an open question about whether or not U.S. forces have fired LRASMs in the course of recent operations in the Middle East. Howard Altman contributed to this story. Contact the author: joe@
