Ethnic cleansing fears rise as Israel squeezes space in Gaza: UN

Israeli forces in Gaza are displacing more Palestinians and their actions continue to raise concerns of ethnic cleansing, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has warned.

Palestinians are being repeatedly displaced by Israeli forces into a decreasing fraction of the besieged enclave, an OHCHR statement issued on Friday said.

The Israeli army is further encroaching on areas past its deployment line, also known as the “Yellow Line,” and “Israeli forces appear to treat the yellow line as a kill zone,” preventing Palestinians from returning to what is left of their homes on the other side, the UN agency said.

The OHCHR cautioned that the Israeli military is destroying remaining civilian infrastructure and attacking displacement sites, as it continues its stated aim of increasing its military deployment area to 70 percent of Gaza’s territory.

Human rights groups and aid agencies have repeatedly called on Israel to stop forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza and attacking shelters throughout the conflict.

The OHCHR documented the westward expansion of the Israeli military over the past two weeks, triggering new displacement of Palestinians in Shujayea, Gaza City, and in eastern Bureij, eastern Deir el-Balah and eastern al-Maghazi in Central Gaza.

The UN agency noted that in Shujayea, at least two Israeli attacks were reported on displacement camps, with explosive robots detonating the few buildings left standing in the area.

The OHCHR also said that it received reports that an Israeli drone dropped munitions on a tent housing displaced Palestinians at the Shujayea junction on Sunday. The Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza said the resulting fire displaced 200 families comprising 800 people.

Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR in occupied Palestine, said the “nightmare of displacement” in Gaza was both “acute and chronic”.

“Those displaced before the announcement of a ceasefire have little to no prospect of return to the areas they fled, most of which are inaccessible because they fall beyond the so-called Yellow Line. And they continue to be displaced again and again.”

Despite an ongoing ceasefire, Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued, with at least 1,574 people killed and 5,687 others wounded since the agreement came into place on October 11, 2025, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.

Since the genocidal war began in October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed at least 74,570 people and wounded 175,808 others.