Build a first-class refugee camp for Gazans in Israel

Hamas’s strategy for its war with Israel has long been obvious. Hide in tunnels, compel Israel to kill civilians to get to fighters, maximize civilian deaths and suffering, fight a war of delay and attrition, and hope international pressure forces Israel to leave Hamas standing. Israel’s response should have been: Get the civilians out of the way, and go after the fighters full force. Or as full as concern for the hostages would allow.

Israel has tried to limit civilian deaths, including warning civilians within Gaza about where active fighting will occur, and advising them to move to safer areas. That has surely reduced civilian casualties. But every day brings more civilian deaths. People are tired of moving. Some are now being told to move for the third, fourth, or fifth time. Meanwhile, no country will take meaningful numbers of Gazan refugees. More is needed.

Herewith a modest proposal for what Israel should have done in late 2023, and should still do today, to move civilians out of harm’s way. This plan is relevant now, but even more important for future rebuilding: Build a high-quality refugee camp in the Negev desert near the Gaza border. Provide plenty of tents, food, water, sanitation, electricity, medical facilities, prayer spaces, schools, cell towers, etc. Employ Arabic-speakers, including Bedouins, as guards. No weapons, of course. The Negev has plenty of empty land.

Invite all women, children, boys under 15, and men over 50. This would be a refugee camp, not a prison. Unlike the Israeli proposal for a humanitarian camp in the Rafah area, people could come, then go back to Gaza (as long as they do not go back to an active combat zone), and then return to the camp. They could carry aid, such as food and medical supplies, back home for those who will not or cannot come themselves, and then return for more.

Get the world to pay for this. The Europeans, Canadians and Australians have paid lip service to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. Hopefully, they will pay up. But build it anyway. The US will surely help. 

Israeli analyst Haviv Rettig-Gur has made a similar proposal. He would allow men of military age to enter, too, using facial recognition software to screen them and arrest known Hamas members. Sure, if the technology works well enough.

This idea is scalable. Start building. Create a waiting list. Let people in as the camp expands. Whether it is one camp or several, and where they are located, are just details. Perhaps they need to be within walking distance of much of Gaza. Or maybe along the border with Egypt, as in the Trump-Kushner plan. Buses can be arranged.  Like the Gaza Humanitarian Fund and the proposed Rafah humanitarian area, the new camps will deprive Hamas of the power to fund itself by stealing and reselling aid.

There is hunger in Gaza. It needs to be addressed urgently. A refugee camp won’t happen fast enough to address that need. But it can be implemented in parallel with all other current humanitarian efforts.

Hamas will fight this plan. But unlike the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, where every day is an opportunity to foster chaos, most people will come and stay. Hamas will have limited power to disrupt people moving to the camps. Security infrastructure can be built quietly on empty land, instead of being jury-rigged in a war zone.

Some Israelis will object, citing the strong possibility that such an arrangement would aid Hamas supporters. But most Gazans support Hamas. So what! We don’t know who is who. Even if we did, it is not moral to starve the supporters, and the world wouldn’t let us.

Other Israelis will object over concerns that the Gazans will stay for years. In fact, if the camps are built right, they will – while Gaza is rebuilt. Meanwhile, their children can be educated to want coexistence, not forever war. Some parents will learn that Israelis are not the monsters Hamas says we are. Israel will need to be explicit that living in a refugee camp, even for years, does not confer Israeli citizenship.

Still other Israelis will object because they want Gazans to leave permanently. They like President Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” plan. So do I. If Gazans want to leave (many do), and if there are places that will take them (the harder problem), they should be free to go. Israel can pay for their plane tickets, even if antisemitic hypocrites whine about ethnic cleansing. Those who choose can come back, if they want, years hence, when Gaza is worth returning to. Most won’t want to.

Some will ask: Why can’t this be done inside Gaza? Three reasons: Space, security, and logistics. A large, cleared space is needed outside the areas where Gaza will be rebuilt. That space has to be at a secure distance from Hamas. And the logistics of building, staffing, and supplying the camp will be far easier on empty Negev land.

This plan allows rebuilding Gaza, once Hamas is gone, as a military and governing power. Trump was right in saying it’s necessary to remove people first and then rebuild. The refugee camp plan provides a place for people to evacuate to.

Gaza has no future with Hamas, whether it holds power overtly or acts behind the scenes. No one will rebuild, only to have Gaza destroyed again in Hamas’s next war. Building refugee camps addresses hunger and other humanitarian concerns, even if not instantly. It allows removing Hamas. It allows rebuilding Gaza.