Israel is setting up a complex system of checkpoints that will prevent men of “military age” from fleeing Rafah in preparation for its offensive on the southern Gaza border city, a senior western official familiar with Israel’s plans has told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity.
The creation of gender-based checkpoints around Rafah would put a spotlight back on Israel’s practice of stripping and forcibly detaining male Palestinian men and children, as it faces rising scrutiny in the West of its conduct in the war.
This reeks of Srebrenica.
Yeah, it’s still genocide if a country restricts itself to only killing the men. And Israel very much is not restricting itself.
What does this mean
It is a reference to the Srebrenica massacre. The perpetrators there precisely first picked out men and boys from a refugee population as the first step towards genocidal violence, which they carried out a few days later.