Israel has cleared land in southern Gaza for the construction of a camp for Palestinians, potentially equipped with surveillance and facial recognition technology at its entrance, a retired Israeli general who advises the military said on Tuesday.

Retired reservist Brigadier General Amir Avivi told Reuters in an interview that the camp would be built in an area of ​​Rafah cleared of tunnels built by Hamas, with entrances and exits monitored by Israeli personnel.

Aviv is the founder of the influential Israel Defense and Security Forum, a group representing thousands of Israeli military reservists.

He does not speak for the Israeli military, which declined to comment. The Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately comment on any plans to build a camp in Rafah.

Avivi said the camp will be used to house Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt, as well as those who wish to stay.

His comments come as Israel prepares for a "limited reopening" of Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a key demand under US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza.

Sources told Reuters this month that Israel wants to ensure that more Palestinians leave Gaza than are allowed in. Israeli officials have spoken in the past about encouraging Gazans to emigrate, although they deny they intend to forcibly transfer the population - a highly sensitive issue for Palestinians.

"There are almost no Gazans in Rafah," Avivi said.

The area fell under full Israeli military control after an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in October, and most Palestinians fled to Hamas-held areas.

"Infrastructure needs to be built in Rafah that can accommodate them, and then they can choose whether they want to go or not," Avivi said.

He said the structure is likely to be "a large, organized camp" capable of housing hundreds of thousands of people who could undergo identity checks, including facial recognition.

In July, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media that he had ordered troops to prepare a camp in Rafah to house the Gaza population. Officials have not spoken publicly about such plans since then.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the media office of the Hamas-run Gaza government, told Reuters in a statement that the idea amounted to cover for "forced displacement."

Palestinians in Gaza, devastated by two years of Israeli attacks on the enclave, have long faced restrictions on their movement and monitoring of their online activity and phone calls by Israeli surveillance agencies.

Almost all of Gaza's 2 million residents have been forced to cross into a narrow coastal strip from which Israeli forces withdrew under the ceasefire, and where Hamas has retained control.

Trump's plan for Gaza, now in its second phase, calls for the reconstruction of Gaza to begin in Rafah and for Hamas to lay down its arms in exchange for further withdrawals of Israeli troops from the territory.

Aviv said the Israeli army was preparing for a new offensive against Hamas if it refuses to give up its weapons.

This could include resuming attacks on Gaza City, the enclave's largest. The Gaza camp could be used to shelter Palestinians fleeing a renewed Israeli offensive, Avivi said.

"The plans have been set. The army is ready to take command from the government, from the cabinet, to renew its maneuvers in Gaza," Avivi said.

The Israeli military says it has continued to carry out operations in Gaza since the ceasefire, to thwart what it describes as planned attacks by militants and to destroy Hamas' network of tunnels beneath Gaza.

Israeli attacks since the ceasefire have killed more than 480 Palestinians in Gaza, health authorities there say, while the military says four soldiers have been killed in militant attacks.

Avi Dichter, a minister in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet and former head of Israel's domestic intelligence service, said that disagreements over disarmament could lead Israel back to war in Gaza. /Telegraph

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