Forcing 1.2 million people to leave their homes in Gaza is not merely a move from one place to another, it is a death sentence carried out slowly.

Displacement here does not mean only leaving one’s home, but embarking on an endless journey of torment: one that begins under the roar of missiles, drones and exploding robots, and ends in tattered tents without food, medicine or safety.

The Israeli occupation has imposed forced evacuation on the residents of Gaza after destroying residential towers, bakeries and water, electricity, and communications networks. An entire city is stripped of the essentials of life, rendered uninhabitable. Only a few years ago, many would have dismissed such a scenario as unthinkable in the 21st century. Yet it is now reality, openly blessed by the United States. The recent visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with his statements endorsing Israeli crimes, alongside Trump’s threats to unleash “hell on Gaza”, serve as further evidence of the political and military partnership behind this genocide.

Even families who complied with Israeli orders to evacuate were not spared death. Israeli warplanes targeted evacuation convoys, killing dozens of civilians on escape routes. Thus, the so-called “shelter” becomes another stage in the path of danger, and displacement another chapter in the cycle of death.

On the human level, each family becomes a moving scene of fear and exhaustion: mothers carrying infants without enough food, patients without medicine and the elderly without care. These daily images are not isolated incidents, but the outcome of a deliberate policy aimed at stripping civilians of the means to endure: destroying vital infrastructure, cutting off water and electricity and blocking relief corridors to make survival in the city impossible.

Politically, the simultaneous orders of evacuation and destruction read as part of a strategy of erasing the population from their land, a form of indirect mass expulsion intended to empty areas of their residents. Legally, the repeated targeting of civilian structures and the obstruction of aid are flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes against civilians when used as tools of forced displacement.

The south: A new trap, not a safe haven

The south is portrayed as a “safe zone”, but in reality it is merely an extension of the tragedy. Displaced people are crammed into the Mawasi area, which makes up barely 3% of Gaza’s territory, while the rest is designated “red” and dangerous after being levelled and destroyed. The journey to the south is often made on foot, stretching 20 to 25 kilometres, with families forced to fit their lives into a small bag while carrying children through explosions and clouds of falling debris.

The truth is that the south is little different from devastated Gaza. Israeli warplanes continue to bomb tents in Mawasi, killing displaced civilians. This exposes the rhetoric of “safe zones” as yet another ruse to advance the plan of forced displacement. Human Rights Watch in May 2025 documented a “systematic Israeli plan to forcibly transfer Gaza’s population”, while Amnesty International in September 2025 described the mass evacuation orders as “illegal and inhumane”.

In this sense, displacement is not a solution or an option for survival; it is a deadly trap designed to empty the land of its people and sever them from their roots. The UN Commission of Inquiry, on 16 September 2025, declared that Israel had committed genocide, including “forced displacement” and “creating living conditions intended to bring about physical destruction”, placing events squarely within the legal framework of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The concentrated pressure on the south aims not only to herd displaced people into a tiny space, but to create crippling conditions that make long-term survival impossible: overcrowding, water and sanitation shortages, and the absence of adequate health and education services. Politically, this mass concentration facilitates greater control over civilian movements and paves the way for population redistribution or new demographic arrangements.

From the perspective of international law, forcing people into confined zones while preventing safe access to aid, or even targeting those zones, constitutes a form of collective coercion and may signal intent to destroy aspects of civilian life, requiring criminal accountability for crimes of displacement or even crimes against humanity if intent is proven.

Displacement as psychological and physical punishment

Slow death is not limited to explosions and hunger; it penetrates deeply into the human and psychological experience. Half of Gaza’s population are children, and they endure horrors far beyond their capacity. Sleep turns into a nightly nightmare and those nightmares follow them into waking hours. The World Health Organisation in September 2025 warned of a “dangerous trajectory of malnutrition” compounded by psychological trauma, where hunger intertwines with the loss of trust in the world.

Families are torn apart along the way; many children lose parents in bombed convoys or collapsing houses. Those who survive do not escape unscathed, they carry deep psychological scars: anxiety disorders, depression, the loss of early childhood and delays in emotional and cognitive development. Displacement robs them of childhood as it robs them of place, creating tortured generations marked for life.

Hunger, homelessness and the spread of disease deepen the catastrophe. The absence of food and medicine turns camps into slow-motion cemeteries. And with humanitarian aid dwindling under Israeli restrictions and international silence, survival itself becomes a daily form of resistance.

These psychological tolls are not incidental damage but the ongoing result of policies designed to fracture social and emotional bonds within the community. Politically, targeting the civil fabric, through the destruction of schools, hospitals and water stations, seeks to dismantle safety networks built over generations, making community recovery nearly impossible even after the violence subsides. Such social fragmentation may be part of a strategy for long-term displacement: as the social fabric disintegrates and people abandon their land, the chances of return or reclaiming rights diminish drastically.

International responsibility and options for action

If international law is to hold any meaning, the world must act urgently to stop this genocide. Statements and general calls are not enough; what is needed is the enforcement of genuine humanitarian protection, the opening of safe corridors for food, medicine and fuel, and the prosecution of Israeli officials in international courts.

UN experts warned on 5 September 2025 of a “failure to prevent genocide,” stressing that the silence of major powers, chief among them the US, makes them complicit in the crimes.

Responsibility does not rest only with governments. Global solidarity requires practical steps: funding and resourcing credible relief organisations; pressuring politicians to halt military operations blocking aid; documenting testimonies and facts through media and academia; and organising awareness campaigns that reflect reality beyond the narratives of justification.

Conclusion: The world’s silence is partnership in a crime

Displacement in Gaza is not a matter of relocation; it is a complete cycle of slow death: destroyed homes, starvation, disease and psychological devastation. If the world does not act now, its silence will not be neutral, it will be complicity.

The children sleeping without beds, the mothers chasing their children under bombardment and the elderly trudging toward an unknown fate, all are living a reality that cannot be postponed. What is happening in Gaza is not a passing humanitarian tragedy; it is a true test of the world’s humanity.

Unless compassion is transformed into political pressure and legal accountability, displacement will remain the name of the slow death inflicted daily on Palestinians. And history, as it has taught us time and again, does not forgive the silence of accomplices.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.