The anatomy of displacement: Gaza, West Bank and South Lebanon

This report examines the structural nature of displacement across Gaza, the West
Bank and Lebanon. It argues that displacement is not a humanitarian side effect of conflict but a deliberate and recurring strategy of Israeli governance, rooted in
decades of settler-colonial and military control. From the mass expulsions of 1948
to the blockade of Gaza and the ongoing destruction since October 2023,
displacement has functioned as a mechanism to fragment Palestinian society,
reshape demography and consolidate territorial control.
In Gaza, forced evacuations, starvation-induced displacement and the dismantling of UNRWA’s aid network have transformed basic survival needs into tools of coercion. Legal scholars and human rights organisations identify these actions as violations of international humanitarian law, consistent with the crimes of forcible transfer, ethnic cleansing and genocide. In the West Bank, parallel dynamics of settler violence and expansion, demolition of homes and camps, administrative fragmentation, creeping annexation and militarised displacement extend the same logic, making secure residence and return increasingly impossible. In Lebanon, cycles of flight and return intersect with Israeli evacuation orders and European externalisation policies that risk transforming containment into a form of governance, trapping displaced populations in protracted precarity.
The report concludes that displacement across these contexts is a structural and
politically engineered condition, sustained not only by Israeli policies but also by the complicity and inaction of international actors. Addressing it therefore requires coordinated legal, institutional and political responses grounded in accountability, protection and the right of return.