Latest news with #EhudOlmert
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Displacement camp in Gaza 'amounts to a crime'
Ehud Olmert on the proposal for a 'humanitarian camp' in Gaza and why he believes it's both impractical and ineffective. Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, talks about the proposal for a 'humanitarian' camp in Gaza, rejecting comparisons to a concentration camp – yet still says it's impractical and ineffective.
India Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Gaza war has to stop, we have achieved everything: Ex-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert
In this exclusive edition of World Today, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert states that a large part of the Israeli population now believes the war in Gaza must end. He asserts that Israel has achieved all it can through military operations and continuing the war risks the lives of Israeli soldiers and hostages. Olmert is critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu's government, suggesting its actions are driven by political survivability rather than national interest. He addresses the proposed 'humanitarian city' in Rafah, stating, "This humanitarian city is, by definition, a crime which Israel will not be able to accept responsibility for such a crime." The interview also covers the failure of October 7th, which Olmert attributes to arrogance and complacency, the lack of a post-war political plan for Gaza, and his vision for a two-state solution to achieve peace with the Palestinians.
NBC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
In strike after strike, a growing number of children have paid the price in Israel's offensive in Gaza
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had made a 'technical error' in a strike it said was intended to target an Islamic Jihad member but instead killed at least seven children as they waited for water at a distribution point, according to UNICEF. The IDF said the error caused the munition to fall dozens of meters away from the target. It has not made any similar explanation in the strike that unfolded outside the health clinic or at the seaside cafe. Throughout its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has faced mounting accusations of war crimes and genocide, including in a case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' top court. The ICJ last year ordered Israel to do everything it can to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, issuing a symbolic blow condemning the Israeli military's campaign in the enclave since the court has no power to enforce its rulings. Both Israel and the United States have rejected accusations of genocide. But condemnation has also grown from within, with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telling the British newspaper The Guardian in a recent interview that by the spring, when the Israeli government abandoned negotiations for a permanent end to fighting, he had reached the conclusion that his country was committing war crimes. Meanwhile, he said, a widely condemned proposal from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to build a so-called 'humanitarian city' over the ruins of hard-hit Rafah in southern Gaza and force Palestinians to live there would constitute ethnic cleansing. Olmert called the proposed site a 'concentration camp.' Avi Melamed, a former Israeli military intelligence official, said that often in strikes, decisions of life and death are inevitably being made. 'If there is a person there that is, you know, responsible for terrible things … I would say, of course, we have to take this person down. But then, of course, comes the question, 'OK, what's the cost?'' 'Is he sitting surrounded by 20 kids in a classroom? Probably, I would say I would not, I would not attack,' he said in a phone interview. 'If say, there is a probability that this person is finding shelter around among civilians, I would try to verify that to the best of my capacity and then to take the decisions.'
Al Mayadeen
5 days ago
- Politics
- Al Mayadeen
Israeli Rafah plan is ethnic cleansing disguised as aid: Ex-PM Olmert
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview with The Guardian on Monday, said that "Israel's" proposed "humanitarian city" in Rafah is tantamount to ethnic cleansing and would operate as a concentration camp if realized. He warned that the plan, supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Security Minister Israel Katz, represents a dangerous intensification of "Israel's" ongoing violations against the Palestinian people. "It is a concentration camp. I am sorry," Olmert said, responding to Katz's directive for the military to prepare a blueprint to house 600,000 Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip. Under this plan, Palestinians would be forbidden from leaving the area except to other countries, a restriction Olmert described as an unmistakable form of forced displacement. "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," he noted, warning that the only logical interpretation of the strategy is one of forcible expulsion. According to the UN and multiple humanitarian agencies, nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while attempting to access aid, as Israeli strikes have repeatedly targeted so-called aid distribution zones. Olmert's remarks come amid growing condemnation of "Israel's" ongoing operations. A July 13 report from Reuters detailed how at least eight children collecting water in al-Nuseirat were killed in an Israeli missile strike, with Israeli forces later blaming a "technical malfunction." Human rights groups argue such incidents are not anomalies but part of a systemic pattern of violence targeting civilians under the guise of humanitarian management. On the ground, the toll is staggering, with over 58,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the war began, and more than 1.7 million displaced. Nearly 70% of the territory's infrastructure has been destroyed. Hospitals and health facilities have been bombed into dysfunction, over 900 damaged or flattened, while entire residential neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble. The humanitarian situation is compounded by the collapse of clean water systems, widespread disease, and near-total food insecurity. Critics argue these conditions render any official language of "humanitarianism" void of meaning. Read more: Gaza aid line targeted: Dozens killed, UN confirms 798 dead at sites Olmert said the humanitarian city plan cannot be separated from increasingly extreme rhetoric by cabinet ministers who have openly called to "cleanse" Gaza and pursue settlement expansion. "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. There is no other understanding that I have, at least," he said. Prominent Israeli legal experts and rights advocates have echoed these concerns, warning that under specific conditions, the policy could amount to genocide. Beyond Gaza, Olmert issued a denunciation of the current government's handling of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, calling the 'Hilltop Youth' militias a grave internal threat for committing daily war crimes against Palestinians under the protection of the government. In remarks for Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 and elaborated further in a column for Haaretz, Olmert characterized the settler groups as organized terrorist militias carrying out a government-enabled campaign of violence, displacement, and land theft against Palestinians. "War crimes are occurring daily. Jews are murdering Palestinians. Burning them," Olmert said on live television, adding that "The IDF doesn't do what it's supposed to do. The police shut their eyes." Known as the "Hilltop Youth," these settler militias consist mostly of radicalized young men entrenched in illegal outposts across the occupied West Bank. Their attacks, according to Olmert, are not the actions of a rogue minority, as often claimed by Israeli officials, but part of a deliberate policy backed by political forces within the Israeli government. 'These militias are not a gang of savages,' he wrote in Haaretz, 'but the vanguard of everyone who encourages and inspires them – and covers for them.' Olmert explicitly linked their actions to senior far-right figures, naming ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, Tzvi Succot, and others as part of the political ecosystem that enables settler violence. "There are people in power who will protect them, as long as they don't relent," he warned, adding that "Palestinians are assaulted and run off their lands. Their fields are burned. Their homes are burned. Yesterday, an American citizen was beaten on the head with a club and killed." Read more: Israeli 'humanitarian city' plan jeopardizes Gaza ceasefire deal talks
Al Mayadeen
5 days ago
- Politics
- Al Mayadeen
Internal rift deepens in 'Israel' over Gaza concentration camp plans
A controversial Israeli scheme to forcibly transfer hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a militarized encampment in southern Gaza has drawn fierce condemnation from across political, legal, and humanitarian circles. Marketed by Israeli leaders as a "humanitarian city," the project has been exposed as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing, further entrenching "Israel's" ongoing war crimes against the Palestinian people. Under the plan, approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pushed forward by Security Minister Israel Katz, up to 600,000 Palestinians would be confined to a heavily restricted zone near the Egyptian border. Movement in and out of the area would be virtually impossible, with only third-country departures permitted, effectively stripping displaced Palestinians of their right of return. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, breaking ranks with the far-right government, described the plan bluntly, "It is a concentration camp. I am sorry." He added, "If Palestinians were forced to move to the camp, it would create a concentration camp... This is part of an ethnic cleansing." Israeli ministers responded not with reflection but with personal attacks. "Heritage" Minister Amichai Eliyahu smeared Olmert by invoking his past imprisonment, seeking to delegitimize his warnings rather than address the crimes being planned. The initiative has also sparked an internal rebellion within the Israeli military. According to reports from Channel 12, IOF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir voiced opposition to the plan in a closed-door security cabinet meeting. He warned that the displacement scheme would drain vital resources from military operations and captives recovery missions and could amount to a war crime. Zamir's office reportedly reiterated that the mass displacement of civilians is not part of the army's role, especially amid legal challenges from Israeli and international human rights advocates. Despite warnings from his military leadership, Netanyahu doubled down, reportedly rejecting the army's proposed timeline and budget. "I asked for a realistic plan," he said, pushing for an expedited displacement operation, one that finance officials say could cost taxpayers 15 billion shekels a year, draining public funds from health, education, and welfare. The political, legal, and economic opposition to the plan is further compounded by its role in sabotaging ceasefire talks. Hamas officials have rejected the "humanitarian city" as a deceptive euphemism for forced ghettoization. "This is utterly unacceptable and no Palestinian would agree to this," said senior Hamas official Husam Badran, who called the proposal a "deliberately obstructive demand" designed to collapse negotiations. Even Israeli officials acknowledge the plan's potential to derail diplomacy. Broadcaster Kan revealed that senior leadership privately admits that Hamas would never accept such terms, even with so-called "modifications." Meanwhile, Israeli war crimes continue unabated. On Sunday, airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 31 civilians, including children and families gathered near aid distribution points. A July 13 Reuters report confirmed that Israeli missiles killed eight children in the Nuseirat while they were collecting water, an act the military dismissed as a "technical malfunction." In reality, this strike is part of a broader campaign of collective punishment. According to the UN, over 798 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food or aid. Entire neighborhoods have been obliterated, more than 900 health facilities destroyed, and Gaza's water, sanitation, and energy systems have collapsed. Over 58,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 1.7 million displaced, many multiple times. Despite this devastation, "Israel" continues to cloak its military objectives in humanitarian rhetoric. But as Olmert starkly put it, "When they build a camp where they 'clean' more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding is that it is not to save [Palestinians]. It is to deport them, to push them, and to throw them away." Read more: Gaza aid line targeted: Dozens killed, UN confirms 798 dead at sites
