Ori Goldberg, Israeli political commentator, says “it is a big deal” for Israel to talk about its plan of setting up “what is for all facts and purposes a concentration camp” for Palestinians in southern Gaza, committing “what is an overt crime against humanity under international humanitarian law”, Al Jazeera reports.

“It should be taken very seriously,” he added, but questioned the feasibility of the task of “concentrating the Palestinian population in a locked city where they would be let in but not let out.”

Goldberg said that leading sources within the Israeli army have directly said they cannot build the camp while working “towards the release of hostages, which is a codename for continuing to bomb and kill Palestinians all over Gaza”.

The army lacks the resources for “the immense logistical enterprise”, he added. “The Israeli economy is in tatters, the IDF [the Israeli army] is paying millions of shekels for people to demolish Gaza’s structures, not build them.”