A flutter of leaflets, dropped from the sky: one million Palestinians are ordered to leave Gaza City and move south into what "Israel" calls a “humanitarian zone.” For civilians trapped in famine and bombardment, the message reads less like evacuation instructions and more like a death sentence.

“This is ethnic cleansing,” says Ruth James, Oxfam’s Regional Humanitarian Coordinator, speaking from inside Gaza. “Israel is the occupying power—it has the responsibility to protect people, not forcibly displace them. You cannot just uproot one million people from the place they live. It is illegal under international law, inhumane—and it's part of a genocide that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people.”

'A genocide by starvation and displacement'

“This is not just displacement,” James told Al Mayadeen English. “It is the deliberate use of starvation and forced mass displacement as weapons of war, every single person in Gaza is affected, but the most vulnerable - children, the elderly, the sick and disabled - are dying first.”

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, forced displacement in occupied territories is prohibited except under narrow conditions, and only if temporary and accompanied by essential protections that simply do not exist.

Illegal, impractical, unconscionable

The orders are not only unlawful, they are physically impossible.

“Three weeks ago, the UN confirmed there is famine in Gaza City. Just yesterday, five people, including one child, died from hunger,” James explains. “If you’re starving, you can’t pick up your children and walk 30 or 40 kilometers south. Some can’t even stand. This order cannot be carried out.”

More than 1.9 million Gazans have already been displaced—often multiple times.  More than 64.900 are dead, over 200,000 have endured life-changing injuries. Israel bans vital medical supplies, making movement especially impossible for the wounded.

'Safe zones' without shelter, under attack

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“I stayed there.” James recalls. “No housing, no water, no sanitation, no medical care, no soap even. The overcrowding, nearly 48,000 people per square kilometer, is a breeding ground for disease and death.”

From March to June 2025, UN documentation recorded 112 Israeli attacks on Al Mawasi that killed 380 people, including at least 158 women and children. Another airstrike in September 2024 killed between 19 and 40 Palestinians who had been told they were in a “safe” place.

Starvation by design

“This is man-made,” James declares. “We have 4,000 food parcels sitting just across the border in Jordan that Israel won’t let us bring in. People are dying not because food is unavailable, but because of the blockade. Starvation is being used systematically as a weapon. That is why we describe this as genocide.”

Refusal and despair in Gaza City

A recent survey reveals nearly half of Gaza City’s residents would prefer to stay rather than move into overcrowded southern zones.

“For those who remain, the order is a death sentence,” James warns. “And for those who try to move- it’s more trauma, displacement, and suffering.”

Humanitarian workers under fire

The risks extend to those delivering aid. Recently, an airstrike hit the Oxfam partner Aisha Association’s headquarters, killing staff, a pregnant woman, and a child.

“Our partners risk their lives daily,” says James. “Humanitarian coordinates have been shared with Israel, yet they ordered us to evacuate. This is a violation of international law.”

Complicity and accountability: “The world is enabling genocide”

For James, what is happening in Gaza cannot be separated from the actions of foreign capitals.

“This genocide is carried out not just by Israel,” she says firmly, “but enabled by governments that continue to trade with Israel, to sell it weapons, and to welcome its leaders with open arms. That includes my own government in the UK.”

She points to the recent visit of "Israel’s" president to London, despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against other Israeli officials. “Instead of enforcing international law, the UK rolled out the red carpet,” James says. “Instead of cutting arms sales, Britain keeps supplying weapons. It is unconscionable. The same is true of the United States, of Germany, of many European states. They are not neutral, they are complicit.”

For Oxfam, accountability is not optional. “Every bomb dropped on a Gaza family, every child starved, carries the fingerprints of those governments who continue to arm Israel. History will remember not only Israel’s actions, but the complicity of those who allowed it to happen.”

Enduring trauma

Even if a ceasefire is declared tomorrow, Gaza will not recover overnight.

“This is collective trauma,” she says. “Children have missed nearly three years of schooling. Bombs, hunger, displacement have shaped their childhoods. The psychological scars will endure across generations.”

For now, Oxfam has one urgent plea: “Open the gates. Let us feed the hungry,” James pleads. “That is what the world must do, right now.”