By Elvis Dumba | Harare
The Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tamer Almassri, has issued a grave warning against Israel’s latest evacuation orders in northern Gaza, calling them a “dangerous escalation” in what he described as a policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing.
In a strongly worded statement released by the embassy, Ambassador Almassri denounced Israel’s directive for civilians to flee northern Gaza and Gaza City toward Khan Younis—an area already devastated by previous Israeli strikes on refugee camps and shelters.
“These evacuation orders, issued under the pretext of military operations, represent a continuation of Israel’s colonial project—depopulating northern Gaza and forcing Palestinians into a densely packed corner of the south,” said Almassri.
“Southern Gaza is being turned into the largest open-air detention camp in modern history.”
He likened the situation to some of history’s darkest moments, drawing parallels to the Nazi ghettos of the 1930s and 40s.
“This orchestrated humanitarian disaster evokes chilling comparisons to Nazi-era ghettos, where communities were confined in squalid, overcrowded zones before facing extermination,” he said.
Almassri further accused Israel of deploying “fascist tactics“—including the siege of civilian areas, denial of food, water, and medicine, and targeting of hospitals and shelters—as tools of control and terror.
“It is a grotesque irony and moral tragedy that a state claiming to speak for Holocaust victims now commits, with impunity, similar atrocities against another indigenous people,” he added.
The ambassador sharply criticized the international community’s muted response, declaring that silence amounts to complicity.
“Inaction in the face of these crimes is not neutrality—it is betrayal. A betrayal of international law, human dignity, and the post-WWII promise of ‘never again,’” he said.
Ambassador Almassri called on governments, human rights bodies, and individuals across the globe to take immediate action to halt the Israeli government’s actions, singling out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies as perpetrators of what he called a “modern-day brand of fascism.”
Despite the suffering, the ambassador reaffirmed Palestinian resolve.
“The Palestinian people will not abandon their land. Despite the injustice they face, their resistance and resilience will endure.”
He concluded with a warning to the international community:
“History will not forgive the bystanders. Justice will not be denied.”
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