Israel has asked Gazan civilians to leave the areas of fighting to protect their lives. This is by no means ethnic cleansing. In wars people naturally move to avoid danger, usually without the request of the opposing military. Labeling the movement of people during wartime to avoid danger as “ethnic cleansing” would mean that all wars ethnically cleanse people. This undermined the concept of ethnic cleansing which has never been properly defined. According to the UN, “ethnic cleansing has not been recognized as an independent crime under international law, there is no precise definition of this concept or the exact acts to be qualified as ethnic cleansing”.

In addition, Gaza’s population has skyrocketed from 342,700 in 1970, the first census after Israel’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in 1967, to more than 2.3 million in 2023. This is hardly ethnic cleansing.

Gaza has a population growth rate of 3%, one of the fastest growing populations in the world. In 2010 Gaza’s population was half of what it is now. Gaza’s population is so young because of this fertility rate which matches that of Sub-Saharan Africa