Israel plans large camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza, retired general says

By Pesha Magid

JERUSALEM, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Israel has cleared land in southern Gaza for the construction of a camp for Palestinians potentially equipped with surveillance and facial recognition technology at its entrance, a retired Israeli general who advises the military said on Tuesday.

Retired reservist Brigadier-General Amir Avivi told Reuters in an interview that the camp would be built in an area of Rafah cleared of tunnels built by Hamas, with entry and exit tracked by Israeli personnel.

Avivi is founder of the influential Israel Defense and Security Forum, a group representing thousands of Israeli military reservists. He does not speak on behalf of Israel's military, which declined to comment. The Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately provide comment on any plans to build a camp in Rafah.

Avivi said the camp would be used to house Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt as well as those who wish to stay.

His comments come as Israel prepares for a "limited reopening" of Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a key requirement under U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war.

Sources told Reuters this month that Israel wants to ensure more Palestinians leave Gaza than are allowed in. Israeli officials have spoken in the past about encouraging Gazans to emigrate, though they deny intending to transfer the population out by force - a highly sensitive issue for Palestinians.

"There are no Gazans, almost at all, in Rafah," Avivi said. The area fell under complete Israeli military control following an October Israel-Hamas ceasefire, and most Palestinians fled for areas held by Hamas.

"You need to build infrastructure in Rafah that can host them, and then they can choose if they want to go or not," Avivi said. He said the structure would likely be "a big, organized camp" capable of hosting hundreds of thousands of people that could enforce ID checks including facial recognition.

In July, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media that he had ordered troops to prepare a camp in Rafah to house Gaza's population. Officials have not spoken publicly about such plans since then.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters in a statement that the idea amounted to cover for "forced displacement".

POTENTIAL RETURN TO WAR

Palestinians in Gaza, shattered by two years of Israeli attacks in the enclave, have long faced restrictions on their movement and monitoring of their online activity and phone calls by Israeli surveillance agencies.

Nearly all of Gaza's 2 million people have been forced into a narrow coastal strip from which Israeli forces withdrew under the ceasefire and where Hamas has retained control.

Trump's plan for Gaza, now in its second phase, calls for Gaza's reconstruction to start in Rafah and for Hamas to lay down its arms in exchange for further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.

Avivi said Israel's military was preparing for a new offensive against Hamas if it refuses to give up its weapons. This could include relaunching attacks on Gaza City, the enclave's largest.

The camp in Gaza could be used to house Palestinians fleeing a renewed Israeli assault, Avivi said.

"Plans are set. The army is ready to get the command from the government, from the cabinet to renew its maneuvers in Gaza," Avivi said.

Israel's military says it has continued to carry out operations in Gaza since the ceasefire to thwart what it describes as planned attacks by militants and destroy Hamas' tunnel network under Gaza.

Israeli attacks since the ceasefire have killed more than 480 Palestinians in Gaza, health authorities there say, while the military says four soldiers have been killed in militant attacks.

Avi Dichter, a minister in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet and former head of Israel's domestic intelligence service, said disputes over disarmament could lead Israel back into war in Gaza.

"We have to get prepared for the war in Gaza," Dichter told Reuters, adding that the disarmament issue "will have to be solved by Israeli troops, the hard way."

DEMILITARIZATION GOAL

Hamas has publicly refused to lay down its weapons. Two Hamas officials told Reuters this week that neither Washington nor the mediators had presented the group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal.

According to a document shared by the White House last week, the Trump administration wants to see heavy weapons decommissioned immediately, with "personal arms registered and decommissioned by sector" as the police under an interim technocratic administration in Gaza "become capable of guaranteeing personal security".

Trump has repeatedly warned Hamas that it would have "hell to pay" if it does not lay down its weapons.

A U.S. official said on Tuesday that disarmament could come along with some sort of amnesty for Hamas members.

Speaking to Israel's parliament on Monday night, Netanyahu said the next phase of the ceasefire would not include reconstruction of Gaza.

"The next phase is demilitarization of the Strip and disarming Hamas," Netanyahu said.

(Reporting by Pesha Magid; Additional reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Aidan Lewis)