Gaza Files - Part 4
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The Fourth Geneva Convention. The UN. The ICC. Three instruments. Three documented demands. No binding consequence has followed. The plan continues.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 prohibits the forcible transfer of protected persons from occupied territory, regardless of motive. The UN General Assembly passed Resolution ES-10/26 on June 12 2025 condemning all plans for forced relocation of protected persons in Gaza, with 149 states voting in favour. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on November 21 2024. None of these instruments has produced a binding consequence that has halted the plans documented in this series. The Harvard remarks were made in February 2024. The GREAT Trust plan was circulating in the White House by August 2025. The Davos master plan was presented in January 2026. The instruments existed throughout. The plan continued. This is what the Gaza Files has documented. The series ends here. The suffering does not.
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Article 49 · Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 · Exact text · What it prohibits · 196 signatory states02 / 07
Article 49. Fourth Geneva Convention. 1949. "Individual or mass forcible transfers of protected persons from occupied territory are prohibited, regardless of their motive."
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, adopted August 12 1949, states in its first paragraph: "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive." It also states in its sixth paragraph: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." The Fourth Geneva Convention has 196 signatory states. Fourth Geneva Convention, August 12 1949, ICRC, icrc.org.
Forcible transfer is listed as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions under Article 147. Under the framework of grave breaches, every signatory state is under an obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed such acts and to bring them before its own courts regardless of their nationality, or to hand them over for trial to another state. The ICRC's Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law states: "The transfer by the occupying power of its own civilian population into occupied territory is also a war crime." Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 49 and 147, icrc.org · Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law, guide-humanitarian-law.org.
Source: Fourth Geneva Convention, August 12 1949, Articles 49 and 147, ICRC, icrc.org · Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law, guide-humanitarian-law.org
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UN GA Resolution ES-10/26 · June 12 2025 · 149 votes in favour · Condemns forced relocation plans · Not legally binding03 / 07
UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/26. June 12 2025. 149 votes in favour. Condemns all plans for forced relocation of protected persons from occupied territory. Not legally binding.
On June 12 2025 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution ES-10/26, titled Demand for ceasefire in Gaza, at an emergency special session. The resolution was co-sponsored by Spain and Palestine. 149 states voted in favour, 12 against and 23 abstained. The resolution condemns all plans for individual or mass forced relocations and deportations of protected persons from the occupied territory and reiterates the rejection of forced displacement of the civilian population in violation of international law. It also demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/26, June 12 2025, undocs.org.
UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding on member states. They represent the position of the international community as expressed through the vote but cannot compel action. The Security Council can adopt legally binding resolutions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, but any permanent member of the Security Council can veto such a resolution. The United States has vetoed multiple Security Council resolutions on Gaza since October 2023. The ES-10/26 resolution condemning forced relocation plans was adopted on June 12 2025, five months after the GREAT Trust plan was leaked to the Washington Post and seven months before the Davos master plan was presented. Neither plan was withdrawn following the resolution's adoption. UN GA Resolution ES-10/26, June 12 2025 · La Moncloa, June 12 2025.
Source: UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/26, June 12 2025, undocs.org · La Moncloa, exteriores.gob.es, June 12 2025
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ICC · Prosecutor Karim Khan · May 20 2024 application · November 21 2024 warrants issued · No arrest04 / 07
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants May 20 2024. Warrants issued November 21 2024. Netanyahu and Gallant. No arrest has followed.
On May 20 2024 ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced applications for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering, wilful killing and attacks on civilians. On November 21 2024 the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I issued the arrest warrants for both Netanyahu and Gallant. The warrants require all 124 ICC member states to arrest Netanyahu or Gallant if they enter their territory. ICC, icc-cpi.int, May 20 2024 · ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, November 21 2024, icc-cpi.int.
Israel is not an ICC member state and rejects the court's jurisdiction. The United States is not an ICC member state. Following the warrant issuance, the incoming Trump administration signalled opposition to the ICC proceedings. As of October 2026 neither Netanyahu nor Gallant has been arrested. The Kushner Gaza master plan was presented at Davos on January 22 2026, two months after the warrants were issued. The plan continued. ABC News, November 21 2024 · ICC, icc-cpi.int, November 21 2024.
Source: ICC, icc-cpi.int, May 20 2024 · ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, November 21 2024, icc-cpi.int · ABC News, November 21 2024
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Still in the tent · Al-Mawasi · The instruments exist · The plan continues · The people are still there05 / 07
Article 49 exists. The UN resolution passed. The ICC warrants were issued. The plan was presented at Davos anyway. The people are still in the tents. The plan covers the land they are on.
UNSILENCED Ground Partner Abdallah Alattar has reported from Al-Mawasi throughout 2026. His reports document families sheltering in tents in a displacement camp on the Gaza coastal strip. The Kushner master plan presented at Davos on January 22 2026 places a coastal tourism zone over large parts of Al-Mawasi. The people in those tents are the people the Fourth Geneva Convention was written to protect. They are the people the UN General Assembly resolution condemned plans to forcibly relocate. They are still there. Abdallah Alattar, ground reports, Al-Mawasi, September 2026, unsilenced.co.
The GREAT Trust plan, leaked to the Washington Post on August 31 2025, calculated $23,000 in savings per departure and assumed 75 percent of those who left would not return. The plan assigned a departure price. Article 49 prohibits the transfer regardless of motive. The UN General Assembly condemned all plans for forced relocation. The ICC issued warrants for the individuals leading the military campaign. The GREAT Trust plan and the Davos master plan were presented and discussed at the White House and at the World Economic Forum after all three instruments had produced their documented responses. Washington Post, August 31 2025 · WEF Board of Peace, January 22 2026.
Source: Abdallah Alattar, ground reports, unsilenced.co · Washington Post, August 31 2025 · WEF Board of Peace, January 22 2026
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The question. The series closes here. The suffering does not.06 / 07
The remarks. The trust. The plan. The legal framework that governs all of it. The instruments exist. The resolutions passed. The warrants were issued. The plan continued. The people are still in the tents. When the instruments exist and the plan continues, what is the system actually for?
The Gaza Files ends here. The story does not. Our Ground Partners Abdallah Alattar and Salah Ostaz are still reporting from Gaza. Every frame they send us is the story continuing. Support them directly at unsilenced.co/ABDALLAHALATTAR and unsilenced.co/SALAHOSTAZ.
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